


William Clayton: A Life in Star City

by ectopia



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014), cw - Fandom
Genre: Drama, F/F, F/M, Friendship, M/M, Partnership, There’s a little bit of sex so be careful, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, public school, relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2019-06-07 01:51:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 69,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15208223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ectopia/pseuds/ectopia
Summary: When William comes to Star City to live with his father, there are major ups and downs.William is figuring out how to deal with adjusting and other issues that come along with that. After all when you're the son of the green arrow, anything's possible.!(DISCLAIMER:I DO NOT OWN ARROW OR ANY OF THE CW CHARECTERS)!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys. So this will be my first story on here, and I hope you enjoy reading it! I’m still figuring out how to really use this site, so please, bare with me here.

William Clayton grew up with his mother, Samantha. His mother died in an explosion on an island called Lian Yu. He went to then live with his father, who just happens to be a crime-fighting kick-ass-vigilante super hero. William's life in Star City had been frightening, sad, and also very enlightening. He now knew what it was like to have a father, at the expense of his mother. His father, Oliver wasn't around much and when he was he probably about to leave.

Being the mayor, a father, and the green arrow couldn't be easy for Oliver.

Part of William was mad at his father for not being in his life sooner. Oliver had told him that when he was born Oliver's mom had paid Samantha money to tell him that she lost the baby. And even more money to take William and move to Central City. This made William even more angry than he already was. He should have had his mother and his father there for him since day one. He didn't, though, because why would anything ever be that simple?

William's father wasn't all he had. He had Raisa, their house keeper, who seemed to be at his apartment more than his own father. At the end of the day, that's it. 

At the end of the day, he was alone.

At the end of the day he would never have his mother back for him. She would never be there to hold him and stay at his bed until he fell asleep to sing him songs. All he had was his father. His father who he didn't know al, too well, who didn't know him all too well either. As far as William was concerned, he would never know him all too well and would never care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you all enjoyed that first introduction. There will definitely be more to come, so please stay tuned for tomorrow’s update!  
> Tomorrow: Day in the Life pt.1


	2. Day in the Life pt.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day in the life of William Clayton

William's POV

"Good morning, William" Oliver says, cooking breakfast for his son in the kitchen.

Will only nods in response. It's been awkward between the two of them lately. They both scramble for something to say in between silence, and anytime they've ever had to interact.

"You like your eggs scrambled, don't you?" Oliver asked with a nervous look on his face.

"Yeah" William replies uncomfortably.

Oliver fortunately walks in the other direction, pretending to straighten up the house, though, William knows everything was clean anyway. William was then left to eat his food alone.

Soon enough, though it seems like an eternity Oliver left for city hall.

"Have a good day, Will" Oliver called, walking out the door.

"Yeah" was all William could bring himself to say.

"Did you eat anything, William?" Raisa asked him. After what had happed he couldn't bring himself to eat much of anything.

"Not hungry" He said, plainly.

"You have to eat something, William. I won't let you starve" Raisa said sternly.

"My bus is here" William sighed, as he started for the door.

On the bus things had gone as usual. William sat alone on the cold bus seat, reading.

"Read us a story, Clayton" Nick, a boy that had been teasing him relentlessly ever since he got to Star City.

Will looked over and sighed.

"Leave him" An older-looking girl said from a seat near him. She was probably about the same age as Nick and his friends.

"And what'll you do?" Nick teased the girl back.

"Chop off your dick. Won't be too hard to slash through nothing" The girl bit back, looking up from her phone.

Will chuckled from the seat.

"Don't think it's over, Clayton" Nick hissed at William.

Once he got to the school he scrambled to the locker quickly, hoping to not be seen.

First period was math. William dreaded math. He had loved it back in Central City, where everything was perfect and made sense. But here, the teachers just kept repeating the same things over and over, hoping eventually it would click. He was falling behind in school ever since he moved. Oliver was no help. He was terrible at all subjects and William didnt want to talk to him anyway.

"Ready for some quadratic equations?!" Ms. Cook asked, seeming way too happy to be alive.

"Get out your text books. We're gonna get started with some examples" she said happily, again.

They started to work and William just copied down whatever she wrote on the board, as usual.

"Got that, William?" Ms. Cook asked him expectantly, as everyone in the class turned to face him.

William nodded his head, as usual, though, he had no clue what was happening.

The rest of the day had all gone by as expected. Math, science, English, Spanish and art had all flown past. All he had left to concour today was history.

In history, as usual, they did absolutely nothing. Mr. Fry, their teacher had sat at his desk and told them to study. William, however was the only one who actually followed that instruction. Everyone else was gossiping about some stupid crap. He literally had heard some girl talking about her teacher going to the bathroom in the middle of class... literally nobody cares.

Once his day was over, they all got on the bus. He should've been relived to get home, but once he was home he'd have an all new task to concour. He knew Oliver wouldn't be there, since he would be at city hall, or in what he kept calling ' the bunker', being the green arrow. Raisa would probably be there as usual.

His bus finally came to his apartment. He flew past everyone in the seats and made his way down the steps and off the bus. He then had arrived at his apartment, where he mostly dreaded to be.

"Good day?" Raisa asked as he bolted through the door.

"Better" He said causally, hurrying to his room.

"Dinner will be ready soon. You should go get started on your homework" Raisa called from the kitchen.

He said nothing as he walked to his room.

He stared at his homework for what seemed to be forever. He tried really hard to remember what the teacher had told him but no matter how much he stared, he could barely remember the first step.

"I wish you were here, mom" he whispered softly to himself, starting to cry.

He figured it wasn't worth it. He packed up his school stuff and went to bed.

"Dinner" Raisa called from the living room. William had heard her but he decided he wasn't hungry. Raisa would find him asleep soon. William turned off the lights and went to sleep for the evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Make sure to keep reading for tomorrow’s update!  
> Tomorrow: Day in the Life pt.2


	3. Day In The Life Pt.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day in the life of William Clayton.

Wiiliam woke up feeling like absolute shit that day. He would ask to stay home, but he didnt want to stay with Raisa, and didn't want to ask Oliver. So all he could do was get up for school and sulk about it. He thought he had gotten over his mother's death. He thought he had come to terms with it at the very least, but today, he knew he was wrong about that. He now understood that there was no escaping his grief, there never would be.

"William, get up for school!" He heard Raisa call from where she probably was in the kitchen.

William responded with a deep groan.

William groggily walked into the kitchen after getting ready.

"Here's breakfast, please eat it this time" Raisa told him, nudging a plate in front of him.

"I don't want it. I'll get an apple or something" he responded, handing the plate back to her.

"I guess that is better than nothing" Raisa said, taking the plate out of his hands.

"Where's my da-... Oliver?" William asked in a nervous tone.

"He was off to city hall at 5:00, he'll be back late" Raisa responded through a smile. She had been trying for the longest time to get William to talk to his father, yet still, nothing.

"Have you talked, at least? It would be good for you" Raisa said to William wisely.

"I'm gonna be late, have you seen my back pack?" William changed the subject quickly.

"It's by the sofa, William" Raisa gave in to his play, though she knew that he knew where it was.

After he left the appartment he sat on the bus seat. Today he was forced to sit next to someone. She looked oddly familiar. It took him a while to realize who, but then it came to him. It was that hot girl who had stood up for him when Nick and his friends had been messing with him on the bus that one day. Did he say anything? What would he say? "Hey, thanks for threatening to chop that guy's testicle off for me, really appreciate it!". He felt anxiety build up in his chest. He was sitting next to this mad hot girl. Even worse, it was hot outside, which meant she was wearing short jean booty shorts and a deep red crop-top with what looked to be white dog hair all over it, but even so, she was mad sexy. He stared at her long, glowy legs and thick brunette hair that appeared to be even longer for the longest time before she finally looked up from her phone and noticed him.

"Can I help you?" She said through a smile of laughter. She looked to be very old, and mature. Way ahead of him in school. Eighth grade, maybe.

William froze in embarrassment.

"No- I-I just... sorry" William, said practically shaking.

"Alright, that's your stop, see you 'round, Clayton" she said through her soft chuckles.

Wow! So she wasn't even in middle school. She was one of the high schoolers that had to ride their bus. William hadn't been This happy since he lived in Central City. He thought about Central City. That thought lead him to think about his mom. And that thought lead him to remember his life now, and that was never a happy thought. 

The high pitched ring of the school bell filled William's ears. It was another day, which meant another day to dread. Everything had gone completely as usual. Until lunch. William sat alone at the table as he always did, when to his surprise, three girls and one guy walked up to him and sat at the table. He was so confused at this point. He didn't know that there could be people out there who actually cared. What people had lead them to believe so far was that he was just the mayor's boy. Everyone knew why he was in Star City. They knew that his mother had died and that he had to go live with his father because nobody wanted him. So how could these people be any different. He had learned to never have high hopes by this time.

To no surprise, they decided to sit a few seats down from where he was. Though William had no hopes, he found himself the slightest bit disappointed.

When lunch was over, he went to the trash to throw his stuff away. The guy he saw about to sit with him walked over and stared for a short while before turning to face him.

"Hey, I'm Jack... uhh, if you ever want anyone to sit with at lunch, me and my friends would be cool with that" The newcomer said, itching the back of his neck.

"Yeah, Thanks, I'm William, by the way. I'm cool with Will, though" William said back to him just as nervously.

For the first time in a long while William had hope for his new life. He was still learning the ropes with this whole "new school" thing, but he was pretty sure he'd be okay eventually. His home life had only seemed to have gotten worse, though. No progress what-so-ever with Oliver, and he wasn't intending to make any. Raisa was okay, but William had no desire to be around the both of them. He certainly had the desire to be with his mother again, but he knew that would never happen. Why would anything good happen?

"Cool, we'll sit at that same table tomorrow, then" Jack said, appearing to me relieved.

Now, for the first time in weeks, William found himself being just a little more faithful. He remembered people at the funeral telling him to be, prying at him to just "be happy". Apparently, that's what his mother would've wanted, but how would they know? He was supposed to be the on that spent 12 years of his life with her, so how were they suddenly the experts? Now, he knew that he could do that on his own, without strangers nagging at him. Now, he could really be happy.

Jack's POV 

As they walk across the cafeteria floor they notice a boy sitting alone at a table.

"We should go sit with him" Kayla said, nudging at her friends.

"Do you know who that is?" Alexa said as the other two shook their heads.

"Are you kidding, guys? That's William Clayton. He's the mayor's kid. I'm pretty sure his mom just died" she finished, wiping a piece of long, blonde hair off of her lunch tray.

"Maybe tomorrow, guys. I agree, I do wanna sit with him, but I should go talk to him first" Jack said. He and the girls were aware that he had been diagnosed with social anxiety pretty recently and was in no mood to talk to anyone he didn't know, but this new kid could change all that.

"Sure, but I can go talk to him if you want?" Alexa said, slapping a hand on jack's back.

"No, it's fine. I'll go try today" Jack answered, swinging an arm around her shoulder for a quick side-hug.

The three then walked along the path to the table William was sitting at and sat down on the other end.

"I feel bad, we should go over there now" Alexa said, gesturing towards where he sat alone.

"No, I think Jack really needs to wait, besides, there's only a couple more minutes now. We will go sit there tomorrow, though" Kayla answered, looking at Jack.

"Yeah, I'll go over there when we throw our food away" Jack said, peering over the table to look at William.

When it came time for them to walk over to the trash bins, Jack and the girls walked nervously toward where William had darted to the trash cans.

" I can still do it if you want" Alexa said with a kind look.

"No, I'll do it" Jack said as he stepped over to him.

"Hey, I'm Jack...uhh, if you ever want someone to sit with at lunch, me and my friends would be cool with that" He said, brushing his calf with his opposite ankle.

"Yeah, thanks, I'm William, by the way. I'm cool with Will, though" Will said back to him.

"Cool, we'll sit at the same table tomorrow, then" He answered back, dropping his nervous habit 

William nodded his head and Jack felt a sudden sense of relief come over him. He walked back over to the girls and nodded his head. 

"What's he like? Is it bad that I'm only interested 'cause he's the mayor's kid?" Kayla said with a grin. 

"At least you're interested, but yeah what's he like?!" Alexa said, looking at her friend expectantly.

"He's cool, I guess... jeez, guys it was only small-talk" Jack said with laughter.

"I'm excited for tomorrow" Alexa said with a smile on her face.

"You're always excited about something, Lex" Kayla said, nudging her elbow.

William's POV 

When it came time to go home he boarded the bus with a sudden smile on his face. Smile that was something he hadn't done it what seemed to be forever. He never thought he'd do anything like it again, but now he had actually talked to someone that had actually talked to him! He couldn't stop thinking about tomorrow.

William got home and immediately started on his homework. He felt a little better about it today.

When he actually started doing it he realized that it was a lot harder than he thought. Right as he kind of got the old stuff, he started to be taught the new stuff. His mother would've been able to help. She wasn't here, though which left him to try on his own. 

After what seemed to be hours, he was done. Most of them, he assumed were wrong. At least 8 out of 12 problems had random answers to them. He tried to have sloppy had writing so that it was hard to be read, but he wouldn't be getting away with that anytime soon. He shoved the papers back in his folder and went to get in the shower.

"Dinner" Raisa called from the kitchen.

"I'm not hungry tonight, Raisa" William answered back to her.

"Did you eat lunch?" She asked.

William only nodded in response.

"Okay, then. Go get dressed for bed, it's getting late" Raisa said to him.

William looked at the clock. It was only 8:23. William was in no mood to argue. He did as he was told and got ready for bed.

When he woke up he was there. On the island. On the boat, in his father's arms. He saw him. The man on his knees, holding a gun to his head. When he pulled the trigger the island went up in flames. He looked back and saw that it was no longer Adrian that was holding a gun to his head. It was his mother. On her knees, she was bleeding. And then she pulled the trigger. Next it was Oliver. Then it was Raisa. Until finally it was himself that pulled the trigger as the island exploded for what seemed to be the thousandth time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I am very excited for tomorrow’s chapter, it’s one of my favorites that I’ve written so far, as I have written 11chapters prior.  
> Tomorrow’s Update: Baby Steps


	4. Baby Steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William and Oliver are taking small steps to build their relationship. While Oliver has other plans to build another relationship with someone very special.

Oliver's POV

"Thanks for coming, Raisa" Oliver said as Raisa smoothed out his tux.

"I'm gonna be back late tonight" He said again, shifting around in the suit.

"I remember when your late nights were more like early mornings" Raisa joked.

"Well, luckily I've exchanged night club openings for police academy graduations.

"How'd he do today?" Oliver asked as the two of them walked to William's bedroom door.

"New school... it's hard" Raisa answered, with a sense of pitty for the boy in her voice.

"Yeah, but it's been a couple weeks at school now" Oliver said.

"Hey, you had trouble fitting in when you were his age, Oliver" Raisa reasoned.

"I had Tommy" Oliver argued.

"I wouldn't exactly call having a friend who gets you through the mess fitting in" Raisa retorted back.

"You do make fair points, Raisa" Oliver agreed.

"Raisa!" They heard William's small voice call from his bedroom.

"It's just another nightmare, Oliver. I know how to get him back to sleep" Raisa assured him.

"No, I've got it" Oliver said as he rushed into William's room.

"Hey, buddy" Oliver said as he awkwardly shifted into his son's room.

"Where's Raisa?" William asked, shivering in bed.

"I'm here now" Oliver said, placing a hand on William's knee.

Though a hand on a knee is not much, for the two of them it really was a big step. Oliver knew he had yet to show this ammount of affection to his child. He really wanted to make the little things like hands on knees more normal for the both of them.

"Wanna tell me what happened?" Oliver asked, bending down to face the boy.

William only shook his head in response.

"Kiddo, I cant help if I don't know why I'm helping" Oliver said kindly through a forced smile.

"The bad man was in my dream" William mustered up the courage to tell his father just that.

"It was just a dream, you're safe now" Oliver tried to reassure his son.

"No... that man's here" William said as he was shaking more violently now.

"Buddy, I'm confused... w-where do you think the bad man is?" Oliver questioned his son.

William then pointed up directly at his father.

Oliver knew that William blamed him for his mother's death. He didn't blame his son for that. Who else was there to blame? Adrian Chase was dead, he shot his self in the head just so Oliver would suffer. What If the only one who was really suffering was his son? Oliver knew he couldn't live with that. He had to change this and he would have to now.

"C'mere, sit up" Oliver said to his son as he wrapped his child in a tight, loving embrace.

"I know what happened, I know, but I need you to know that I would never try to hurt you. I'm your father, and what that means is I'm always gonna be there for you. And you don't have to like me for me to take care of you. Buddy, you should know that the last thing your mother asked of me was to take care of you. I am never walking away from you. I will be there wether you want me to be or not" Oliver whispered into his son's mop of chocolate brown hair as he felt William wrap his arms around his middle.

"We'll talk in the morning, Alright?" Oliver cooed to his son, rubbing his back gently.

"Okay" William croaked, his voice was thick with emotion.

"Good night, William" Oliver said as he pulled away from William to turn the lights out.

Oliver then left for the academy graduation.

 

The next morning Oliver woke up early to make breakfast for William.

He saw his son walk groggily through his bedroom door.

"Good morning, buddy" Oliver said as William sat in front of him at the breakfast bar.

"I made you breakfast, please eat it" Oliver said, remembering last night.

"I'll try to... I don't know" William answered, eying the plate in front of him.

"That's all I want you to do, just try" Oliver said, looking at the boy kindly.

William nodded his head and began to eat. In the end he had actually enjoyed it. Oliver was glad to see that William was eating again and appeared to be adjusting very well.

This morning, William had been off to school before Oliver headed to city hall.

"Have a good day, Yeah?" Oliver said, placing a hand on William's shoulder before he left.

"Yeah... Okay " William breathed, taking in his father's embrace.

Just then he was out of the apartment and Oliver turned to close the door behind William.

He was finally starting to get out of the I'm ignoring you zone and kinda sorta getting into the You're okay zone and for that Oliver could not be a happier man.

William's POV

As William was sitting in math trying to understand a single word his teacher was telling him, he finally understood something. Unfortunately, the thing he understood was that next week, they'd have a test on basic quadratic equations. William totally zoned out after that comment. He couldn't. He actually couldn't. He could barely remember the first thing to do. He'd be lucky to get a 'c' by the end of this week. Back in Central City he would get a's all the time. The bell rang right then and William was left with a chest that felt to be swelling with worry. All he had to do was just wait this out until lunch. He had been looking forward to that all day, one more hour and he would be there.

"Focus,Sir. we don't need you looking at the ceiling. Look at the packet" William's Spanish teacher, Mrs. Williams snapped at him.

She had been the biggest ass hole to him ever since he came here to this school. She was old and dangerously boney and smelt of cigarette butts. She barely even knew Spanish. She speaks French and is a long term substitute for the old teacher who was apparently amazing. Even so, he did as he was told and finished the whole packet before anyone else.

"Hmm, that didn't take long, why don't we check it with the class" Mrs. Williams said, dragging her long boney finger across the front page.

"Okay, guys... we're gonna check this thing. I already have one person done, so you should be too. Whatever isn't finished is wrong. I'm grading these tonight" she said again.

"Tell them the answers" she said, turning to William.

William nodded his head nervously.

"Uummm... number one is 'c', two is 'a' number three I-" William then was cut off by his teacher.

"We don't have time for this, no one can hear you anyway. Pack up" she snapped as the bell started to ring again.

William was beaming with excitement. It was third period, lunch. Today he wouldn't have to sit at the table alone. Today he would sit with Jack and his friends .Friends that was a word he had grown very distant with.

He got into the lunch room and immeadiately rushed to the table Jack had told him he would sit at and tapped his hands on the table as he waited.

Kayla /Alex /Jack's POV

The two girls waited at Jack's locker before going to lunch like they always did. Today, for some reason, he was pretty late already.

"We should just go, I haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday" Kayla said, putting a hand to her stomach.

"No, he'll probably be here soon" Alexa said. "Why haven't you eaten anything?"

"Look, I fell asleep before dinner, and this morning I was in too much of a rush for breakfast" Kayla defended herself a little too fiercely.

"Oh, great... She's hangry" Alexa said, laughing.

Just then Jack walked up to them with a worried look.

"Where were you?" Kayla asked frustratedly.

Jack sighed. "My mom was in the office, they called me down" Jack answered as the trio then started to walk towards the cafeteria.

"She had my violin and my lunch... and my history homework. Then she had to give me a lecture about forgetting things. It's embarrassing" Jack whined.

"My parents don't care enough to do any of that. I forget my crap all the time. Just tell your teachers you'll bring it tomorrow" Alexa reasoned.

"I would, but I can't make up for a violin class tomorrow when there's no violin class tomorrow" Jack teased back.

"True" Kayla cut in as Alexa shook her head.

When they arrived in the lunch room they saw William sitting at the table. They did as they said and sat with him there.

"Hey" Jack said as the three sat down.

"Hey" William said back with a wave.

"This is Alexa and this is Kayla. They're really annoying" Jack teased.

"We're only friends 'cause you couldn't find anyone else that's as annoying as you" Kayla teased back, nudging his elbow.

"Hey, I'm Will" William said again.

"Where were you guys?" He asked.

"Well... Jack decided to leave everything at home today, so he had to wait for his mom to bring it to him. Then he got one of those mom-lectures" Alexa told him. Just after that she remembered why he was in Star City. His mom just died and she had just brought up Jack's mom and what a great mom she was to have brought Jack's stuff for him. She cringed at what she had done.

"It's fine. I know what you're thinking, guys" William said with a sigh.

"I'm really sorry" Alexa said, reaching across the table to touch his arm.

"We all are" Jack said as Kayla nodded.

"We don't have to talk about that. It's cool" William said, brushing it off.

"How's your dad?" Kayla asked, trying to change the subject quickly, though there had to be a better question to ask.

William seemed to tense at the question.

"Fine, I guess" William trailed off into his thoughts.

The four talked until lunch was over, and Jack, Kayla, and Alexa had certainly found a friend in him. It was out of pitty at first, but now they realized that despite what everyone else had said, he was really a fun person. They hoped William felt the same about them.

William's POV

William walked off the bus feeling more hopeful than ever. Since he'd come to Star City things have been filled with horrible experiences, anger, and sadness, but now, since Jack walked up to him and asked to sit at the table, he had been totally enlightened. His relation ship with Oliver was finally getting somewhere and hopefully would continue to grow. Things had started looking up since the death of his mother, and William was finally becoming happy again.

As he walked through the door he was shocked to receive a greeting from his father.

"Hey, buddy. Did you have a good day?" Oliver asked from where he was in the kitchen.

William nodded his head. "Why are you home so early?"

"I didn't really need to be there, so I thought I'd come home" Oliver answered with a genuine smile.

William picked up his back pack and headed to his room.

He attempted his homework again, this time remembering at least the first step. After that, though, he totally blanked out. He walked into the kitchen to try something he knew would set him up for failure.

"Hey da-" William stopped himself and cleared his throat. He saw Oliver smile from the corner of his mouth, pretending not to notice.

"Do you know how to do these?" He asked, knowing the answer, but it was worth a shot.

"Well... what is it?" Oliver said, looking up form the stove where he was cooking.

"Quadratic equations" William said with a half-smirk.

Oliver scoffed. "No, I don't, buddy. I think I know someone who can help, though" Oliver said, defeatedly.

"When?" William asked worriedly.

"Soon" Oliver answered.

"How soon? Like, I'll have it down next Monday soon?" He asked with a concerned look.

"Well... maybe... I don't know, for now just hold off I guess. You can tell your teacher your father's too stupid to help you" Oliver sighed, running a hand through his thick hair.

"Okay" William sighed, walking back to his room.

Oliver's POV

Oliver walked through the door after a long day and sighed. With the team and Cayden James, things had really gotten to him. Quinton kept telling him to focus on what's right in front of him. So for once, he decided to finally listen to him. He went to the kitchen and started to cook dinner.

He heard his son then walk through the door.

"Hey, buddy. Did you have a good day?" He asked, looking up from the cutting board.

William nodded a genuine nod.

"Why are you home so early?" William asked, plopping down on the couch.

"I really don't need to be there, so I thought I'd come home" Oliver said with a smile.

William then sluggishly gathered his things and headed to his room.

After a while William came out of his room.

"Hey da-" William started with a frustrated look.

This made Oliver melt inside. His son had almost called him dad. William may not be ready yet, but Oliver was sure he'd get there.

William cleared his throat as Oliver pretended not to notice.

"Do you know how to do these?" He asked in a nervous tone, holding up a packet of papers in front of him.

"Well... What is it?" Oliver asked looking up.

"Quadratic equations" He answered.

Oliver ran a hand down his face. How could he help his son with something he needed help with? Oliver's felt like a shit father since day one, and this was not helping.

"No, buddy, I don't. I think I know someone who can help, though" Oliver answered. He immediately thought of Felicity. She would help, how could she not. He knew he could count on her to make all this work.

"When?" William asked, looking a whole lot more nervous than before.

"Soon" Oliver told his son in a soft tone, trying to calm him down about all this.

"How soon? Like I'll have it down by Monday, soon?" William was spiraling. This reminded him so much of Felicity. Thoughts of Felicity lately had been clogging his mind lately, he knew why. He needed her in his life. So did William, and that all started to make sense to him.

"Well... maybe... I don't know, for now, just hold off I guess. You can tell your teacher your father's too stupid to help you" Oliver said in such a defeated tone.

All that cutting class and bad grades had really come back to haunt him. William needed help, though. He could always count on Felicity... he really hoped he could.

William walked back to his room and sighed.

At least William had began talking to him. He was eating again, too. He wouldn't break down at any remote mention of his mother. All those baby steps had started to build up, and with Felicity he was hoping to take an even bigger step.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading that chapter and I hope you loved it as much as I do! I a, also very excited to update tomorrow. Tomorrow’s chapter is about a woman some of us I know hold very near and dear to out hearts. And that woman if of course...  
> Tomorrow’s update: Felicity


	5. Felicity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver introduses William to Felicity. Felicity is able to help William in a way that no one else could.

Oliver's POV 

(This chapter could be a little inappropriate for anyone on the younger side, enjoy!)

As he cooked in the kitchen William walked through his bedroom door with his nose in a text book.

"You like your eggs scrambled, if I remember correctly?" Oliver asked.

"Yes I do" William responded with slight peppiness.

"Good. That's what I made you" Oliver said to his son with a smile.

"What's that?" Oliver asked, referring to his son's text book.

"Math. Big test this week. I'll be lucky to get a 'c'" William said with a sigh.

"There's nothing wrong with getting a 'c' every once and a while. I used to get d's and f's when I was in school, I would have been hyped for a 'c'" Oliver said with a slight chuckle.

William sighed. "You don't get it"

"May I be excused? I have to study" William continued.

Oliver nodded.

"Thank you" William said politely. 

"Mm-hmm" Oliver then said quickly after. If he was going to talk to Felicity, he'd have to do it today. 

 

Early that afternoon, Oliver paced back and fourth the hall of the apartment. William was at school, so he would have plenty of time to work this out. A plan ran through his mind, dangerously close to how they ran through his mind when he was in the field. He would go to the loft where Felicity lives. Then, he would ask for advice about William. She'd then offer to help and the whole William thing would be taken care of. Oliver knew her so well by now that he knew her every move. He knew she would want to help. Even if she didn't offer, she would definitely say yes if he asked her to. He knew that she would notice that he was nervous. She would ask why and then he would get more nervous. He needed to make a move on her... soon. 

He arrived at Felicity's loft and got out of the car. He walked through the visit in his mind. Soon enough he was at Felicity's door.

"Hey" Felicity said as she opened the door for him, welcoming him into his past home.

"Hi" Oliver said, straightening his tie.

As soon as he had walked in she went straight for the board where she had been working when he was gone.

"I like what you've done with the place" he said to her from afar.

"Thanks. What do think about oracle?" She asked, changing subjects quickly.

"What is all this for?" He asked as he stared at all the writing she had done.

"Company names. Curtis and I have been trying to come up with one for forever and neither of us have anything good. So tell me, what do you think of it?" She rambled with a worried face.

"Well,I-" he began but was cut off by Felicity once again.

"Let me stop you right there, you don't like it, I can tell. I know you. What do think about Byte -by- Byte?" She asked again.

"I think it sounds like an 80's sit-com" Oliver joked.

He could not stop looking at her. Her. He knew this is what he needed.

"Why did you come over here? Sorry" she apologized for the distraction, and boy did she distract Oliver.

"Yeah, uhh... I actually came for some advice..." He started.

"Yeah... about what?" She asked suspiciously. 

"Parenting actually" he said. Felicity appeared to be shocked.

"William has this test coming up. He doesn't think he'll do great. He told me he'd be lucky to get a 'c'. I'm trying to help, but it's like every time I open my mouth, I feel like I'm making it worse" he explained.

"Le'mme guess? You told him something like 'I used to get d's when I was in school, I would've been phsyced for a c'" she said, clearly knowing him all too well.

"Well, I said 'hyped' for a 'c', so... how'd you know?" Oliver asked.

"I know you, Oliver, I've known you for almost 6 years" Felicity reasoned with him.

"I guess so" Oliver confessed.

"About the whole William thing... I'd be happy to come over and help, I just didn't want to invite myself over or anything, I just-" Felicity was cut off by Oliver's hand on her shoulder

"It's fine... I'm sure he could use the help. He doesn't wanna feel stupid, though. Not more than he already does" Oliver sighed.

"Okay, cool.So... when do you want me to come over?" She asked expectantly.

"He wants to be good by Monday, so... maybe tomorrow night, maybe more after that" he suggested.

"Yeah, sure. What time, though? When do kids get home from school? Like... 12-12:30'ish" she pondered aloud.

Oliver scoffed. "Yeah, 'ish' he starts at 7:00, it ends at 2:15" Oliver informed her.

"Hell... seven hours? Dear god" Felicity said, dramatically.

"Yup, those were the days" Oliver said.

"Indeed" Felicity agreed. 

Oliver could not stop staring at her. Her hair, her eyes, her legs, her dress... her chest. Everything looked like it had been laid out in a line for him, tied together with a big, shining, glittery bow. He couldn't be caught staring. He cleared his throat and pulled himself together.

"I've been thinking a lot about this lately... about us and-" his confession was cut short by Felicity's words. 

"Oliver... not yet. Not with William, not with the company, not with everything in our lives. Eventually... I need you to know that I have never loved anyone like I lov-... like you. We will, we will, just not now" Felicity said tenderly, placing a hand on his chest.

"I'm ready... William is ready, the company will all come together in a flash. I can handle everything with the team. Felicity, I need you. I love you and I think I always will. I can't do this without you. William needs you, too. He may not realize it yet, but you... you are what he's needed since Samantha died, I know you are" Oliver confessed from the heart, pulling Felicity closer to him very passionately.

"I love you, too. Give it time. Time is what this needs. I want you, too. I need you. For now, we have to hold on to what we have. I know it doesn't seem like a lot. It isn't a lot, but we will make it through. I don't know exactly what I'm trying to say here, but I know you need someone right now. And I want so badly to be that someone, and I still can be, just not like that. Not now" Felicity said as they both began to cry. They both had gone through a lot, and they both needed someone to help them get through the mess. With Thea out cold in a coma and John pre-occupied with nerve damage, who else did Oliver really have?

"I need you... Felicity, it's so hard" Oliver sobbed into Felicty's chest.

"I know, I know. It'll be okay, I need you, too. I want it so bad. We could just have it for right now, though" Felicity suggested.

"What do you mean?" Oliver asked, looking up from the floor.

"You know what I mean" Felicity said, gesturing towards the top floor, where there was a bedroom. With a bed, and pillows, and probably condoms.

"Hell, Yeah" Oliver said, practically ripping off his blazer and dress shirt. Oliver carried Felicity up to the bedroom. Felicity tore off her blouse and removed her lace Demi-cup bra. She then assisted Oliver by sliding off his belt and pulling down the zipper.

 

Oliver woke up that night laced in between Felicity's glowy, long legs, his sweaty palms on her thighs, butt-naked on the floral bed sheets. He quickly jumped up and looked at the clock. It was 12:34, Oliver told William he'd be back before 9:00. 

"Felicity, wake up" he called to her.

"Hey" Felicity said as she sat up and placed her hands on Oliver face.

"What's wrong?" She asked, dragging her thumb across the side of his cheek.

"I have to go. I promised William I'd be back before he went to sleep" Oliver said anxiously.

Felicity sighed, but she understood. "Okay, you should go then"

"One more time" Oliver said, pulling her back for one last kiss.

Oliver reached out to touch her breasts one last time.

"Fuck, Oliver!" Felicity moaned.

"Bye" Oliver whispered, gathering his things to leave.

"Just for tonight" Felicity said as he was walking out the door.

Oliver sighed. He wanted her forever, needed her. Time just time.

Felicity's POV 

She sat back in her thick beanbag chair and huffed. She had been at it for hours and still had nothing. She and Curtis had been looking for the perfect company name. So far, the best ones she had come up with were Oracle, and Byte-By-Byte. 

Just then she heard a knock on the door. She opened it and saw Oliver standing on the other side. Oliver. Not him. Not now. She'd been thinking about him endlessly since she got back from the island. She knew that with everything in her life, everything that's happened, she needed someone. She really wanted that someone to be Oliver. It couldn't be, though. With everything going on in his life, she could never add to that. With Thea being comatose, his best friend suffering from nerve damage, and hell, he has a son now. One who Had just lost his mother, which left Oliver to raise him alone. Besides, when you're the green arrow, you probably have a lot on your plate.

They talked for a while until he brought up William. Oliver told her that he had a big test coming up and needed help to pass it. From the outside, it may have looked like she was engaged in the conversation but on the inside, she was losing herself completely in Oliver's gentle, pale, masculine blue eyes. She snapped out of it and offered to help. She would be going over there tomorrow night to help him and she was so damn nervous. William could hate her. She did want a relationship with Oliver but now that there's a child involved, she just wanted to do what was best for him, but she knew what was best for her. She needed someone. Someone to help her get through all the trouble. She really wanted Oliver to be that person for her.

She noticed then Oliver's nervous, yet loving expression written across his face. She shot him a confused look.

"I've been thinking a lot about this lately... about us and-" Felicity cut him short as she knew exactly what was coming. She had been through all of this before with him. He lied. He kept a huge secret from her, and she forgave him for that. That doesn't mean she never forgot. He should have came to her. He should have known she was strong enough. William is a big part of his life, if Oliver wanted him to be back then, he should have come to her with it. No matter how hard Samantha tried to push him away. That being said, she wanted him, needed him. She just wasn't ready yet. Oliver really wasn't either. She felt selfish to interfere with Oliver and William while he was still in the adjusting period. She didnt want to make it any harder for William.

She explained to Oliver that she indeed wanted him back too. She needed him too, but it was too soon for her. It was still too soon for William, it was too soon for him too. He needed to get his life together back in one piece, and that couldn't include her quite yet.

Of course, being the strong-willed man he is Oliver argued that he was ready, William was ready too. Felicity knew better. She knew that Oliver wasn't ready yet. William may be, but if he was having a father who wasn't ready could ruin that. She had to be the responsible person here and make the safer call. She had always been that person in their... relationship.

Seeing Oliver like this was killing her. Oliver was sitting there helplessly, crying into her chest, pleading that he was tired and so alone. She needed him, just for tonight. One night may be forever, but that was alright with her.

One night turned into two bottles of wine and bedroom sex. The best she'd had in forever. Only Oliver could make her feel this way. He treated her like she was the only woman in the world. That was all coming back to her now. She wished she would've never let it go. At the end of the day, she knew she did the right thing. 

After basking in Oliver's embrace for hours they finally woke up form their deep drunken slumber. She felt a light tingle coming from her lower half, it was Oliver. Felicity felt so bad. 9liver needed to be home by 9:00 for William, it was now 12:00am. William would be so worried. It was her fault. She wanted him to stay, but she knew he had to go.

"Just for tonight" She Called to him as he was out the door.

Later that night... we'll, morning Felicity couldn't sleep. She snuck into her kitchen and ended up eating a whole pint of ice cream. She remember her days in Ivy Town living with Oliver. She would die to just have that back again. Starting tomorrow night, she'd start to gain all that back.

 

 

So, I was going to wait and update next week, but I really wanted to put this up now. So, if I come up with nothing next week, that's why. I hope you enjoyed this. I'm kind of going out of order here, but the plan is to make it sort of my own version. I don't really know where I'm going with this yet. If there's any ther charecters you want me to include in this, feel free to tell me. And if there's any other suggestions about anything let me know about that too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, there's that! I would love your comments and feedback, and suggestions for the future, so please let me know what you want to,see next! Make sure to keep reading for tomorrow’s chapter.  
> Tomorrow: Worried About You


	6. Worried About You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William worries about his dad when he’s out in the field. Oliver begins to realize what a toll it’s taking on his son for him to go out in the field every night.

William's POV

William stood impatiently in his bedroom. His dad had told him he'd be back at 9:00. It was now 12:53. William couldn't sleep knowing that his father could be out in the field right now. The thought of him getting hurt... orworse terrified him. William had already lost one parent, he couldn't bear losing another. 

William shot up as he heard the front door of the apartment swing open. He darted from his room and to the door.

"Dad!" William shouted as he sucked up to his father in a tight hug.

"Hey,buddy" Oliver said from his chuckles, wrapping his arms around his son,too.

"I know I said I'd be back earlier and I'm sorry, but aren't you supposed to be in bed by now, kiddo?" His father asked, slightly pulling away to nudge the front door closed with his foot.

"I know... but, I was just going to bed now" William lied as he hurried back into his room and slid the door shut.

"Well...Goodnight!" Oliver called back, confused at what had just happened.

William plopped down on his bed and sighed deeply in relief. Still, with his dad home, he found it almost impossible to sleep. He burrowed himself under his blankets and stared up at the ceiling.

Back in Central City his mother had taught him how to pray before he went sleep. Now he only said the prayers in his head. He had never really been a church boy anyway.

"I love you, mom" he whispered to the ceiling with slightly watering eyes. He closed his eyes in an attempt to sleep before the tears had the chance to come flooding down his cheeks.

Oliver's POV 

After leaving Felicity's loft Oliver bolted back into his car, hoping he wasn't still drunk from all the wine he and Felicity had consumed. Oliver rubbed his hand across his forehead and let out a puff of air. He had made so many promises to William already. The first one being to find Samantha and bring her back home safely. That one had already been broken, and though this promise was a small one, it had still been broken too. He drove the rest of the way home in deep regret.

When Oliver got home he was surprised to see his son running toward him. Before he knew it he had been ambushed by a tight, loving hug from William. 

"Dad!" William shouted. This couldn't have made Oliver more happy. Dad. This was the first time William called Oliver dad. Oliver found it hard to believe that he was actually a father now. His parents would've been so happy for him, they would've been so proud.

Oliver wrapped his masculine arms around William in great relief.

"Hey, buddy" Oliver said laughing from the happiness his son had replenished him with.

Oliver remembered what time it had been.

"I know I said I'd be back earlier and I'm sorry, but aren't you supposed to be in bed ny now, kiddo?" Oliver asked with a kind expression.

"I know... but I was just I was just going to bed now" William said quickly, pulling away from the hug and darting towards his bedroom door.

Everything seemed to be happening so quickly that night for him. He didn't know what to think anymore and was beginning to think he was still a little typsy. He rubbed his aching forehead and started for his bedroom for the night. He faceplanted on the bed with a deep moan. All he wanted was to gat back to Felicity as soon as humanly possible. Time, she said, but it seemed like he had already waited an eternity. He didn't sleep that night, as usual. All he could think of was Felicity coming over tomorrow night. He would finally be done waiting then. His only hope was for Felicity to be done waiting aswell.

That morning instead of telling William to hold off or to just study the notes, Oliver was excited to tell him that tonight Felicity would be coming over to help.

"Hey, kid" Oliver said as William sat down at the breakfast bar.

"Hey" William said through a yawn.

"Tired, aren't you?" Oliver asked, handing him a plate of food.

"Yeah" William said groggily.

"You didn't sleep last night, did you?" William shook his head honestly in response.

"Me neither, but, I am really gonna need you start doing that from now on, William" Oliver informed him.

"I was worried" William confessed.

Oliver's eyes zeroed in on his son. "Worried? About what, buddy?" Oliver asked in concern.

"You" William answered.

Oliver's face dropped at this response. He hadn't realized until now what toll it must've taken on William to know that every single night his father would be out in the field, fighting some bad guy that was trying to harm the city. He thought about his father. If his father was out there every night being the green arrow, he would be worried. Really worried.

"Buddy, I didn't know... I didn't think of how hard it must be for you knowing that I'm the green arrow. But I need you to know that I will always come back home... always" Oliver said, reaching out to squeeze William's shoulder.

"Can we talk about this later, dad. I'm gonna miss the bus" William quickly changed the subject.

"Alright, have a good day" Oliver said to William as he gathered his things and walked out the door.

Oliver stared down at the glass surface to see William's plate still completely full.

Seconds later, William rushed back into the apartment.

"Did you forget something?" Oliver asked as William walked in.

"No, the bus already left" William answered.

"Okay, buddy. Hurry and have one of the drivers take you to school. I have to go now" Oliver said as he gathered his things for work.

"Okay" William sighed as he walked back out.

Oliver rushed into the car. He would probably be late to work, as usual. He looked at his phone and saw that he had several text messages from Rene.

R: R u gonna be late again?

R:u ok?

R: u do have a meeting hoss

R: hello?

Oliver looked down at the messages and sighed.

O: Everything's fine, I'll be there soon.

R: do u have an excuse this time?

Oliver sighed again, putting his keys into the ignition.

O: family emergency?

Oliver thought of what had happened with William. It wasn't exactly an emergency, but it would have to be considered one.

R: what? Really hoss? Everything good?

Oliver decided to quit at this point. Rene and whoever was at that meeting would just have to wait.

Oliver rushed out of his vehicle in a hurry to get inside the building. When he got to the front door of his office, he was surprised to see a crowd of SCPD police force members guarding the entry way.

"What is all this?" He asked one of the officers.

"I'm very sorry, Mr. Mayor" the officer removed her hat and stepped out of the way for a very powerful looking woman.

"Samanda Watson" the woman said, emerging from the sea of officers. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Queen"

Oliver reached out his hand for Ms. Watson to shake, but she denied it, stepping into his office. Oliver pushed ahead of her and sat at his office chair. Samanda took her seat on the other end of the desk.

"I didn't see you on my schedule, Ms. Watson" Oliver said, buttoning his suit.

"I'm a federal agent, Mr. Mayor. I don't think I really need an appointment" She snapped, showing her badge.

"Okay... then, I guess I should ask why you're here today, Ms.Watson?" Oliver responded.

"Well, I heard there was a street fight in the Glades Wednesday night, it had to do with vertigo. I also heard the green arrow showed up... where were you, Mr.Queen?" She questioned him.

Oliver tried to look confused, though he knew exactly what was happening. He knew sooner or later, people would start questioning his identity again. He just was not expecting now. He would have to lie about this.

"At home with my son... Ms. Watson, if that's what this is about then I should have you know that I was cleared of being the green arrow nearly 5 years ago" Oliver replied smartly.

"No, Mr. Queen. Mr.Lance cleared you of being the hood not the green arrow. I believe we'll be seeing a lot more of eachother... maybe this afternoon, at 2:30. Bring your associates, you might need them" Samanda said as she gathered her things to leave, taking the FBI and the SCPD with her.

Just after that, Quinton walked in.

"Who the hell was that, Oliver?" Quinton asked.

William's POV 

William woke up at 6:00am that morning, 30 minutes later than normal. Yet still he felt incredibly tired, which made sense considering he had gone to bed at 2:00am this morning. He slowly got dressed and drug himself out of his room to go eat breakfast.

"Hey, kid" Oliver greeted his son from in the kitchen.

"Hey" William slurred through an exhausted yawn.

"Tired, aren't you?" Oliver asked kindly, putting a plate of food in front of William.

"Yeah" William answered.

"You didn't sleep last night did you?" Oliver asked, leaning forward to face William.

William shook his head.

"Me neither, but I am really gonna need you to start doing that from now on, William" Oliver said seriously to William.

"I was worried" William confessed, fending at what his father's reaction may be.

"Worried? About what, buddy?" Oliver asked. His expression seemed to become more and more serious as time went on.

"You" William said nervously. He knew that at some point, he'd have to tell Oliver how he'd been keeping him up at night, overwhelmed with worry. William understood that his father had to be the green arrow and that he was doing it for this city, but the idea of him getting hurt was becoming too much to even think about for William.

Oliver had done just what William had expected. He told him that he was sorry and that he would always come back. William knew that that wouldn't always be up to him. One day he wouldn't come back, that was the only way it could end.

William looked up at the clock and saw that it was time for him to leave.

"Can we talk about this later, dad? I'm gonna miss the bus" William said in a hurry to get out of the apartment.

"Alright, have a good day" Oliver said, reachind across to squeeze William's shoulder.

William walked down the hall of the apartment complex . He wasn't all that excited to go to school today. Maybe if he just went back and told Oliver he had missed the bus, he wouldn't have to go. He walked back down the hall to where the apartment was and reopened the door.

"Did you forget something?" Oliver asked as he entered.

"No, the bus already left" William lied as he closed the door again.

To William's grand disappointment Oliver had told him to get one of the drivers to take him to school. Great. This would really help all the bullying William had experienced so far. Now people would be blabbing about how he was so rich he had people paid to drive him to school in a fucking limo. Fuck.

"Okay" William huffed as he walked back out the door.

When they got there, to avoid getting a stab wound he told the driver to drop him off a few yards away from where the school is.

He was already a few minutes late, so he didn't have to wait outside for the bell to ring.

When he got to math Ms. Cook and the rest of the class stared at him, probably wondering why he was late.

"Sorry I'm late, Ms. Cook... car trouble" William said hading her a note.

"That's alright, go have a seat" she said kindly, as usual.

The rest of class went by quickly, all they did was go over some shit he didn't understand and all he did was nod and play along.

"Alright, guys. Have a great day! Be ready for the test on Monday!" Ms. Cook said with pep. The entire class knew why she was so peppy . Every single day in math class they would watch her consume two whole large mugs full of coffee. William was scared of what she would be like without it.

With the district orchestra concert coming up later that week, every orchestra kid would skip second period to have a rehearsal. William could not be more happy about this. He wasn't sure, but he thought Jack and everyone else played, too. So, at least he won't be alone. William grabbed his cello from the band room and brought it to the orchestra room quickly in an effort not to be seen.

He was the first to get there besides the orchestra director, Mr. Henry. 

"Hey, William"He said as he walked in.

"Hey" William said, sitting down in the back of the room where the rest of the cellos would be.

Right then the rest of the orchestra came pouring into the room. He noticed Kayla in the sea of people that were coming in. He remembered her from the couple of cello classes they'd already had. When they first sat with him at lunch he must've not really been paying attention.

"Hey!" He shouted to her from the seats. Alexa and Jack emerged from the crowd to walk with Kayla.

"Hey!" The three shouted in unison.

Kayla took her seat next to William in the cello section. Alexa sat next to them in the viola section. Jack sat all the way over in the violin section.

"I didn't know you guys were in orchestra" William said to them.

"I didn't know you were" Alexa said.

For the rest of the hour they were there, they played a number of different songs, until they got to their finale.

"Alright, guys. You sound great so far. For this song, though I really need my cello section to stay together and don't go too fast. The violins and violas don't know this quite as well yet" Mr. Henry said from the front of the room.

"Ha" Kayla teased Alexa.

William chuckled.

They started to play "Radio Active" . The cellos did speed up, but everyone else seemed to speed up, too. They sounded damn good. William was impressed considering they'd only gotten this last week.

Practice ended and the four of them went to lunch.

"We were pretty good" Jack said once they were sitting at the lunch table.

"Yeah, except for the first song. The violins sound like shit" William said.

"You guys literally sound like a dying walrus " Kayla agreed.

Alexa laughed.

"We seriously do, though. No one can get it right, even though we got it in like September" Jack admitted.

The rest of lunch they talked about the rehearsal and the concert. When lunch was over, Alexa and William left for science and Kayla and Jack headed to math. 

"Bye" Alexa and Will called to the others.

Kayla and jack waved back and hurried off to class.

 

"Okay, guys. Biomes. They're cool, right?" Mr. Kevin, Williams science teacher asked the class, waiting for a response.

"Okay, then" He continued after no one answered. "A biome is a community of plants and animals that have common characteristics for the environment in which they exist" 

"So, knowing that much, I want a project on whatever you know so far. Tempelates and project boards due on Thursday, please. You may work with one other individual" Mr. Kevin finished.

William and Alexa looked at eachother in confusion as they were given very little instruction.

"What the fuck" William mouthed across the table to Alexa.

"Wanna work together ?" Alexa mouthed back.

William nodded his head.

 

When William arrived home, he was startled to see his father standing next to an unfamiliar looking woman wearing a tight blonde ponytail and glasses. 

William walked over to his father and gave him a look of confusion.

"William, this is Felicity" Oliver said.

 

Hey, so I feel like this definitely wasn't my best chapter, so yeah. I had so many plans for this, but I realized that they wouldn't really work out for this chapter, so that's why this chapter is kind of all over the place.

So, chances are if you're enjoying this book, you would enjoy @Olicity4lyfe 's book called William Clayton's Highschool Experience. It's about an older version of Will that meets this girl and absolutely falls in love with her, with lots of drama and life lessons he has to learn along the way. It's one of the main reasons I started writing this in the first place, so I hope you like it.

Or, @tombboyforlife's book called The Flash's Daughter. It follows a young girl named Liz Allen through things like school, love life and other drama that comes along with that. @tombboyforlife updates all the time, so if you're looking for something consistent like that, this is the way to go.

Those are both just adorable fanfics about William and they're pretty much all I ever read. Don't tell my English teacher...

Hope you enjoyed this hot mess of a chapter!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey you guys. So I am so sorry about the missed update yesterday. Things got a little busy and it just totally slipped my mind.Also, those stories I told you about up there can all be found on Wattpad, rather than the archive. Anyways, thank you all so much for reading, it means so much to me that you all support this work. Please continue to read for tomorrow’s chapter.  
> Tomorrow: Time Takes Time


	7. Time Takes Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver and Felicity contemplate the idea of getting together again at the expense of William.

"Hi" William greeted Felicity with a small wave.

"Felicity's here to help you with-with...uhhh?..."Oliver paused mid-sentence.

"Quadratic equations?" Felicity finished for him.

"Yeah, those" Oliver corrected himself.

William felt so uncomfortable. Whoever this woman was, she was acting pretty awkward. When Oliver told him he knew someone that could help, he was picturing some smart dude with like 10 master degrees or something. He couldn't help but chuckle the slightest bit.

"Okay, we should get started then" Felicity said, gesturing towards his room.

Right away, William had sensed the burning tension between his father and Felicity. A horrifying thought came to him. Last night, when his father had come back late he didn't see anything on the news about the green arrow being out. He wasn't In the field, he was with Felicity. This thought had entirely disgusted him. He was suddenly eager to retreat to his bedroom with Felicity to get her away from his father.

"Okay, let's go, then" William said, as he started to walk the path to his room.

When they got there they immediately started working in his homework, and all the other homework he hadn't done. When Felicity turned her head to remove a whisp of hair from her face, William noticed a huge hickey on the side of her neck.Ew. This was absolutely disgusting. The thought of her and Oliver doing... you know what flooded his mind. Though that part was atrocious, William did think it was kind of adorable. The way they had been acting around eachother was so awkward. If they were going to get together, it'd better be soon, because William could not take much more of this.

"So, hows school been?" Felicity asked as they began to take a break.

"Okay, I guess. I made a couple friends, but... I don't know" William said honestly. Though, the two had just met, William already felt like he could tell her anything. 

"I know, but it does get easier. I know what it's like switching schools but you will get there... promise" Felicity said with a genuine grin.

"We should get back to work" she encouraged him.

William nodded and they began working. William had really gotten a good understanding of this now, thanks to Felicity. She made it fun and she didn't make him feel stupid or talk to him like he was a kid. He really hoped she stuck around for him. For Oliver, too.

William paused in the middle of the equation not knowing what came next.

"So, now do I solve for x?" He asked.

"Yes, but first... you have to finish that" she said pointing at his blob of messy writing.

"Ugh... why can't I just solve for x ?" William complained.

"You will... later... like maybe in Highschool, but for now you're stuck with doing it this way" Felicity said.

"Well, then I'm gonna bomb this!" William said in frustrated tone, throwing down his pencil.

"You know what sucks? You're still new and probably a little behind, but the fact that you're getting frustrated means that you can see how useful math is in the real world which also means unfortunately... you're really good at it" Felicity said handing him a pencil.

"Dad said school doesn't matter in the real world" William reasoned.

"Well... Dad didn't grow up in the real world" Felicity said back.

"How's it going in here, you two?" Oliver said, stepping into the room.

"Good! I'd say we're making progress" Felicity answered.

Oliver set down a plate of unfamiliar food in front of him.

"That's not grilled cheese" William said, pointing at the plate.

"You're right, that is a grilled cheese... on a waffle" Oliver said.

"Wait. You've never done that before?" Felicity asked in disbelief.

William shook his head.

"Well, you are missing out on the greatest night-time snack that anyone could possibly ever ask for" Felicity said, shaking her head.

"And you put all that fancy meat stuff on it... trust me it's great" Felicity said again.

"That is how we do it in the not real world" Oliver said, having overheard their previous conversation.

Felicity and William chuckled.

"So, you guys done in here?" Oliver asked, smiling.

"Uhhh... almost, but I can do the rest on my own now" William said confidently. 

"Okay, that's great. Thank you Felicity" Oliver said.

"Oh, you are welcome! You have a smart kid, Oliver. I think it's finally time to catch up" Felicity teased.

"You're right, I do. And it is, has been for a while" Oliver said, nudging William with his elbow.

"Do you think you could tutor me some more before the test?" William asked Felicity.

"Yeah, if it's cool with your dad it's totally cool with me" Felicity responded, turning her attention to Oliver as the young boy followed her gaze.

"If it's okay with you, then it's totally cool with me" Oliver said, gazing into Felicity's eyes. Ever since Oliver walked into the room, he could not keep his eyes off her. One of them needed to walk out of that room ASAP so that William could have the chance to laugh. If Felicity came over to tutor him again, she might be staying for a while.

Felicity gathered her things to leave.

"Bye, Felicity" William said.

"Thank you" Oliver mouthed to his son, trying to remind him of his manners.

"Thank you!" William corrected himself as Felicity left.

Oliver followed her out of the room and William figured he'd give them some alone time.

Oliver's POV 

Oliver came home from work early, though he probably shouldn't have, to see Felicity come through his front door. He'd been thinking about this moment all day. Though Felicity was coming over for William, He was hoping they'd take a little longer so that he'd have an excuse to keep her over for the night. Hopefully William wouldn't notice if they slipped eachother a look every once and a while.

Finally, Oliver saw Felicity and her magnificent beauty step through the door.

"Hey, Oliver" she said as she walked in.

"Hey" oliver said back. The awkwardness between them was obviously there.

"We don't have to talk about last night, if that's what the look on your face is about" Felicity said, laughing.

"No. I don't want to forget it, Felicity. It was great, I had fun. It doesn't have to be awkward" Oliver said, knowing that it very much still would be.

"I don't want to forget either, Oliver. I had fun, too. But this doesn't change anything. We can't do this yet. We need time, we all do. We need to take our time... go slow" Felicity said, with a sweet voice.

"Yes, Felicity. I do, too. But nothing has changed, I still believe that he's ready" Oliver said again.

"I know, but-" their conversation was cut short by William's footsteps coming through the door.

William scattered his things to the ground, not noticing Felicity there.

When William finally noticed her, he walked over to him with a questioning look.

"William, this is Felicity" Oliver introduced his son.

After the awkward pleasantries, William and Felicity went to Will's room to start on homework. By the look on his son's face, Oliver could tell that William had noticed tension between them, he wasn't stupid, he would find out at some point. Oliver just didn't think it'd be this soon. Last night was certainly a night he'd never forget. Felicity draped over the bed sheets, soaking in himself scent, he couldn't stop thinking about it. She said "time", but one day had been enough time for him. When Felicity sees how William really is, and that he's adjusting well, she'll be ready. She'll see that William's ready, that they all are.

Oliver walked into the kitchen area to start making dinner for William.

He looked on the counter and saw that they were out of bread, so he'd have to use the next best thing. Waffles. It'll be great. He overheard them talking in Williams room. He didn't realize how confused William really was about all this. He sounded compleately clueless. Felicity is a real life saver. For William and for himself. She should be for everyone, if only the world could get to know her. There might actually be a chance of world peace. Oliver hadn't had thoughts like this in a long time, not since Felicity first came into his life. It seemed like after the island, everything started to go down hill, until Felicity. She was the real hope, the light they all needed.

When Oliver was finished, he knocked on William's door.

"How's it going in here, to it two?" He asked, setting down a plate for William.

"Good. I'd say, we're making progress" Felicity said with pep.

It made Oliver so happy to see the people he cared about getting along so well. He ask for much more out of this.

When it was time for Felicity to leave, Oliver followed her out and William's stayed behind.

"How'd it go?" He asked her, as they walked into the hallway of the apartment complex.

"Really good, he smart" Felicity answered back with an adorably nervous tone.

"I know we got cut off earlier... if you still wanna talk... we should talk" Oliver said, trying to calm her.

"After tonight, I realized how much I need you in my life, and how much William needs you, too" Oliver told her honestly.

"I know... and I respect that that's how you feel, Oliver... I do. But after tonight, I realized how much I need to step away and let the two of you adjust on your own. He needs his father right now... not me. Not someone to replace Samantha. He needs you. It's just like last time we were moving too fast, and then we got engaged. And then I got shot... and paralyzed... Oliver if we're going to do this, we have to wait. And when the time comes we have to go extra slow. I can't trust fate as much as I once did... I'm sorry" Felicity said, as tears began to stream down her face.

"Hey, Hey. It alright" Oliver said, pulling her into a hug.

"Okay, Okay. I respect your decision, and you make great points. But... Felicity, I can't agree with them. William is ready, and he will adjust better with you around. You're right, he does need me. But... he needs you, too. I need you" Oliver said as his eyes began to water too. He didn't think they were moving fast at all. He had loved her for 5 years. It felt anything but fast. He needed her in his life, he couldn't parent his child alone. Hell, he could barely take care of himself, and if Felicity was there, she would make everything so much better. She always did. With everything that's been said and done, Oliver still knew where he stood with this. He was ready, William was ready, everything, everyone was ready. Except Felicity, and he had no choice but to except that.

"Okay... I have to go... Curtis is waiting"she said, before kissing him briefly on the cheek ad wiping away what remained of her tears.

Oliver took a deep breathe as he watched her walk away. He had to get himself together before he saw William. 

When he got back inside, William was already on the couch waiting.

"Hey, buddy. Did you finish?" Oliver asked, stepping in the door.

"Yeah, it's pretty easy now that I actually understand it" William answered.

Oliver noticed the beaning smile on William's face.

Oliver laughed. "And what's that about?" Oliver asked, gesturing around his face.

"You like her, don't you?!" William asked, bursting with joy.

Oliver laughed again." Where did that come from?" Oliver questioned his son, running a hand down his face.

"You know exactly where it came from, I'm not stupid, I know emotions!" William said again, laughing harder.

Oliver sighed. He knew if he even attempted to continue this conversation, he would get awkward and it would quickly turn into him saying something about sex. Oliver stopped himself, before any of that could happen and went to his room.

 

Felicity's POV 

She sat impatiently at the foot of her bed, waiting until the moment she left for Oliver's apartment. She knew she was just coming over there to help william, yet she couldn't stop thinking about last night with Oliver. She knew she wanted him, but William needed to get to know his father before he got to know some crazy lady who he wasn't even related to.if she got in the way of that too soon, she could never forgive herself. She couldn't be selfish like that.

After a couple more minutes, she decided it was time to go. She gathered her things and headed ou the door

When she arrived at the apartment complex she was hella nervous. She didn't expect to be this nervous. She didn't even know what she's was worried about. Everything would be fine, Oliver loves her, and William... he'll most likely like her. She got herself together before she got out of the car.

When she got into the apartment to see Oliver, as she expected, it was pretty awkward. She most didn't really want to, but it was probabky for the better that they talked about last night. Her feelings still hadn't changed. She couldn't be with him now. It was too much for all of them.

Their conversation was cut short when William walked into the house.

He scattered his things on the floor and plopped down in the couch. William reminded her so much of Oliver already. She had seen on the island how much they looked alike. She had never seen anyone except for Oliver with the same dazzling, sahrp, yet gentle blue eyes. He had obviously passed them down to William. Just the thought of that made her heart tingle with joy.

After a few seconds of not noticing she was there, William turned around and saw the two of them standing in the kitchen.

"William, this is Felicity"Oliver introduced his son. Just by the way William was looking at them Felicity knew that he noticed something was up. She really hoped he didn't know exactly what. 

After the awkward pleasantries she headed to Williams room to start working.

She was impressed with his knowledge. He seemed to be very smart, and was a good student. Definitely a trait passed down to him by Samantha. 

After a while of working Oliver came in to get William dinner. She decided it was time to head out, so she then gathered her things and left. Oliver followed her out to the hallway.

"How'd it go?" Oliver asked her as they stepped out.

"Really good, he's smart" Felicity answered honestly. She was greatly anticipating the rest of the conversation that awaited her. She wanted to talk about this, of course, but at the same time she didn't want to at all. The entire time William had been the deal-breaker, but now, she was beginning to realize that he wasn't. It was all of them, no one was ready for this yet. She knew damn well she wasn't.

"I know we got cut off earlier... if you still wanna talk... we should talk" he said, shifting around a little.

Felicity thought about how to answer this question, but she let Oliver continue.

"After tonight, I realized how much I need you, and how much William needs you, too" oliver said sweetly, laying a hand on her shoulder. Just his touch made Felicity want more of it. She hated how he did this to her, but at the same time she loved it. But she could never say anything like that. They weren't ready, nobody was ready.

She explained to him that she couldn't be with him just yet. They neeed time for William to adjust with just Oliver without her adding to all that. They all needed tome to adjust to things after the island. She did, and she wanted Oliver to help her with that. But William was more important. He needed Oliver, only Oliver. She could never try to take Samantha's place. William didn't need another mom, he needed his dad.

After saying those things, she felt hot tears burning in her eyes. She felt Oliver's masculine arms wrap around her middle. She wanted him, she knew she did. But she could never be selfish like this. She had to pull her self away and focus on something else. Curtis would be waiting.

"Okay... I have to go... Curtis is waiting" she said, pulling away. She fought the urge to kiss him goodbye with every single bone in her body. She missed how she could just do that, it was so normal. But what Oliver needed to realize is that time takes time, and she knew for sure that she would take hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading the latest part of William Clayton: A Life in Star City! So, I won’t be updating tomorrow, I plan to update this coming Tuesday on the 17th.   
> Tuesday’s update: A Trip Back Home pt.1


	8. A Trip Back Home Pt.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William goes on a little nostalgic trip back to where it all began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. I said I would update on Tuesday and technically it is Tuesday. It’s just that it’s 12:05 am on a Tuesday... I was so excited about posting I just couldn’t wait. Anyways, enjoy!

William's POV 

It was a Saturday, which meant William could sleep in how ever long he wanted to. Which is why he was especially angry when he hear his father walk into his room in the morning. 

"Cm'on, buddy. Get up" Oliver called through the doorway.

William groaned thickly.

"No" he moaned as he tossed around in bed.

"William get up please, we're going home" Oliver sighed as he walked further into his son's room.

William was now not only angry and tired, but confused. First, his father walks into his room at like 5:00 am on a freaking Saturday, and now he claims that they're going home when home is exactly where they are. He burried his face far into the pillows and draped the blaket back over his head.

"Get up, please" Oliver called one last time, walking out of the room leaving the lights on and the door open.

"Can you close the door?!" William yelled back at him, frustratedly. He let out a deep growl in anger. If you're going to storm into the room at 5:00 am on a Saturday, at least close the damn door!

William groggily got dressed for wherever he was going and then stormed outside to the living room.

"Dad. Where are we going, because youtold me we were going home but then why would you wake me up early if we were just gonna stay here?!" William complained, stepping into the kitchen to face his father.

"Whoa... first of all, buddy, calm down" Oliver said, laying a hand on William's shoulder.

"When I said home I meant we were going back to Central City. I got news about something going on there, but don't worry everything's fine. We're only going back for today, then I'll take you home, okay?" Oliver finished.

This changed nothing. William was still angry, and still confused. Why the hell would he want to go back to Central City? And why was he even going there? Every little thing would only remind him of his mother, and how she got blown up on Lian Yu. If anything he was more angry than before.

"Ugh" William huffed. "You still didn't have to get me up now. I don't even wanna go, what ever it is, it's probably not even that important" William said as he started to walk back to his room.

"William, come here" Oliver called back as he was walking away.

He gestured over to the couch, and they both sat there side by side. William was nervous about what his father would tell him next. By the look on his face, is wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. 

"William, I got an email from one of your old neighbors in Central City" Oliver stopped to lay a hand on William's knee.

"They said that it's been a couple months since... no one's been living there... the contractors... they're tearing it down, I thought this would be important to you, maybe you'd wanna visit one last time?" Oliver finished.

William's heart dropped. He didn't think he would ever care this much, but now that it was real, he was heart broken. All he could think of was his mother, all the memories they had there. They would all just get torn down. No one even bought it as their own, and no one even tried to sell it. 

"Buddy, I know how hard this must be. But I am willing to take you there before they get rid of it if you want?" Oliver asked again.

William nodded. "I wanna go" 

"Okay. Go ahead and get ready then, I don't want to get there too late" Oliver stood up, leaving a kiss attop of William's head.

As Oliver walked away, he then remebered to ask: "Oh, buddy. By the way, do you remember who Patty Boyle is?" 

Oliver's POV

Oliver sat in the kitchen, trying to clear out all his emails everyone from city hall provided him with when he saw an unfamiliar name on the screen "Patty Boyle" it was probably spam, so he began to delete it. But, it could be something important, he sighed and opened the email to read it.

*Dear Oliver Queen,

It's to my understanding that your son, William was previously living next door to my husband and I with his mother, Samantha. 

"This is bull shit" Oliver thought. Whoever this was they had some nerve, bringing up his child was crossing the line, but even so, he kept reading.

I should bring to your attention that the house your child once lived in will soon be demolished. Due to no one living in it for so long, they've made the decision to not sell it. Samantha gave me a key to the house, so if you come up to Central City some time soon, your son could have one last look at it. It is to my understanding that this probably sounds like spam, but if you ask William about me, he'll most likely remember.

Hope you come, Patty.*

Oliver sighed and ran his palm down his face. This seemed like a big deal for William. Oliver remembered how he felt when the Queen Mansion was torn down. This could be really important for William. Normally Oliver would never do anything like this, to trust a random stranger, but for William, he felt like he had no choice. He was well aware that this could be a grand attempt to kill the green arrow and his son, but Oliver knew that he could protect himself, and his son. This was something he just had to do. He hadnt been there for William most of his life, but he would form now on try his absolute best to be the best father he could be.

Oliver walked to his room to begin packing for the trip that awaited him and his son. He thought to call Barry and his team to let them know he'd be in Central City, but quickly got sidetracked by the noise of his son stepping into the room.

"Dad?" William asked, shutting the door behind him.

"Yeah, buddy?" Oliver answered.

"Felicity's here, she wants to see you" William said.

"Okay, Wait in here, Okay?" Oliver said, putting a hand behind William's back to move him out of the door way. 

When he got outside his room, he saw her standing there. Even in laid back, casual clothing and flip flops on she was so damn beautiful.

"Hey, Oliver" she said.

"Hey, are you okay? Do you need anything?" He asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, no. I just wanted to see you, I wanted to talk to you, but William's said you were about to leave... I'll come back later, Oliver . Have fun in Central City, and don't hesitate to call if you need anything" Felicity said, rushing out of the apartment.

"Wait" oliver said, before she had the chance to walk out the door.

"Don't go. This seems important, please tell me. You seem worried" Oliver scrambled for words.

Felicity rushed back over to him and took him into her arms tightly, kissing him passionately.

They were all wrapped up I eachother's loving embrace, when Felicity began to speak.

"You're right. It was important. But right now, William is far more important than whatever I was going to tell you. Please, Oliver, don't worry about me. Just go be with your son" she's said, pulling away for him. Oliver was left alone, then, completely flabbergasted by what had just happened. He knew one thing do sure, though. He loved Felicty, and in that moment that was all that mattered.

William's POV 

After a couple hours, they got into the car and started to drive to Central City. William didnt really know how to feel. If he were to cry, it wouldn't be for that stupid old house, it would be for his mother. He didn't know what to expect when he got there, he only knew how he felt now, and honestly, he felt pretty okay. He noticed his father repeatedly looking back at him from the driver's seat to see if he was okay, he pretended not to notice and kept looking out the window.

"You Okay, William?" Oliver finally asked.

"Yeah, dad. I'm fine" William responded honestly.

"Alright, let me know if you need anything, kiddo" he said kindly.

When they finally arrived in Central City, they stopped at his old house. Luckily, it was still standing, although there was tape around the perimeter, and other signs of construction around the building, the house was still intact.

"Okay, buddy, we can't go in yet, we're going to go over to your old neighbor's house, she'll let us in" Oliver informed him.

William nodded. He remebered Patty from when he lived there. She had always been so kind to him, she was almost like a grandmother figure to him. She would come over and bring fresh cooked meals and cookies all the time, she had been great. William was nervous to see her again, he didn't know how to act around her anymore, or what she would do.

Oliver rang the door bell and Roger, Patty's husband answered the door.

"Hello, you must be Mr. Queen?, please come in"Roger said politely. 

The two nodded their heads hesitantly and stepped inside.

"And you, William. You've grown a lot" Roger said, slapping a hand on William's shoulder.

William thought this would be awkward, and it was. Roger helped when William was growing up. When William was little, growing up without a father, Oliver wasn't there when he learned to ride a bike for the first timme, Roger was. When William was old enough to understand that he had to have a father somewhere out there, that it wasn't just his mother, Roger acted as a father figure for William. The both of them made things just a little easier for Samantha.

As sooon as Patty walked into the room, she lunged to wrap William in a tight hug.

"I have the key to the house right here, Mr. Queeen. You'll have to find some sort of way to get past those construction workers, though. Thank you for bringing your son here, we really appreciate it" She said, pulling away form William.

"Of course, thank you" Oliver said.

Patty handed them the key. Oliver lead William outside to where the house is.

"You sure, buddy?" Oliver asked, turning to face the boy.

"About what?" William asked.

"I don't know... everything?" Oliver finished.

William sighed "I miss her, Dad" William answered, beginning to feel hot tears stinging in his eyes.

"I know, I know" Oliver tried to calm him down, pulling him into a loving hug.

Oliver began to rub small circles all across William’s back, in that loving fatherly way.  
William tried to push the tears back, but they came out, flowing down his face as he let out a silent sob. He tightened his grip on his father’s coat, feeling the damp spot he’d created with his shed tears.

"If we're going in we should go now, okay kiddo?" Oliver started to pull away, wiping the tears from his son's face.

William took in a gulp of air " Yeah, I'm ready"

William nervously shuffled into the house, his father right behind him.

When he walked in, he immediately saw an old photo of him and his mother. It was sitting on the table where he used to eat every day, with his mother. It was of the two of them at the beach one day, they were sitting on the blanket by the water. He was so happy then, when she was alive. All the memories had come flashing back to him at once. In the kitchen, when he was five, on mother's day he wanted to do something special for his mom. He tried to make her breakfast in bed, but the toast he tried to make burned, and the cereal he poured had bubbled over. Even, so he brought it upstairs to his mother and when she tasted it she said it had been the best meal she'd ever had. William smiled at the memories, though he wanted to cry.

"That picture's still there, you wanna take it?" Oliver asked when he saw his son looking at it.

"Yeah, I guess" William responded.

"Can I go up to my old room... alone?" William turned around to ask his father.

"Yeah, sure. I'll be right here" his father said.

William looked around at the place he once called home. The walls were bare. No sign of all his flash posters ever exsisting there. Once they moved they had taken everything with them, short of a few nick nacks and their mattresses. This was the first house he'd lived in. This was before his mother had come to him one day and told him that he had to move, and change schools, and his name. She said it would keep him safe, but she never told him why. Now, William knew. He sat on his bed for a while and just remembered. He remembered when things had been so simple. Ever since he came to Star City, things were so complicated, so complex. Being the mayor's kid and son of the Green Arrow certainly didn't help that. 

William didn't realize how long it had been when he heard a knock on the door.

"William, you Okay?" His father said form the other end of the door.

William gasped and snapped back into reality. "Yeah Dad, I'm fine"

"Can I come in, buddy?" He heard his father through the door.

William paused for a brief second, wondering how to answer his father.

"Uhh, yeah. Sure" William respnded.

Oliver pushed open the door with a slight creak and stepped in, joining his son on the bed.

"I know how hard it must be to leave, but we should be heading out soon" Oliver said, slapping a hand in William's back.

"Can we look around first. I wanna see if we left anything" William answered his father, not wanting to go. 

"Of course" Oliver said, sitting up off the bed.

They stayed in that empty house for at least another hour before they decided it was time to head out. They had found a couple of old photos of Samantha mad William, they all made William miss her even more.

Oliver's POV

As he stood in his son's lonely, old house, he couldn't help but think of his own mother. Although, she may not have been the best of human beings, she was his mother no doubt. 

"Can I go up to my old room... alone?" He heard his son ask.

"Yeah, sure. I'll be right here" he answered as he started looking around. The old house was empty after they'd stripped it bare before they moved away. Oliver was worried about his son. He didn't really know just how William felt about all this. When the Queen Mansion was torn down, Oliver was completely destrot. Having his first home torn down on top of the death of his mother had shattered Oliver to pieces. The thought of that happening to William terrified him. 

Oliver realized it had been a while since he sent William off to look at his old room.

"William, you okay?" Oliver called through the bedroom door.

"Yeah Dad, I'm fine" William shouted back.

"Can i come in, buddy?" Oliver asked.

"Uhh, yeah. Sure" William siad. Oliver was relived to hear that. 

Once Oliver finally rounded up William, his son decided he wanted to take one last look around.

As they were looking around, Oliver Saw a slip of paper in the corner, lying on the ground. When he picked it up he realized what it was. It was the check Moira gave Samantha to lie about the baby and move Central City. Oliver was surprised. After all these years Samantha never cashed the check in. Not even if it were to provide better for her son. Samantha had always been a good person like that. William deserved better. He deserved her.

"Hey, Dad? I think im ready to go now" William said from behind him. Oliver quickly shoved the check into his shirt pocket.

"Alright, buddy. Let's go" Oliver responded soon after that, turning around to leave.

Just then as they were walking out the door, Oliver heard a beeping sound in his pocket. He checked his phone and was surprised to recieve a call from Barry.

Oliver answered the phone, as soon as they were in the car.

"Barry? Everything okay?" Oliver asked through the phone.

"Umm, Oliver? You need yo get to STAR Labs... o-or some where safe right now." Barry answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I love to get all of your lovely feedback and comments in the box below, so feel free to leave a comment. Let me know what you want more of in the future and maybe even what you want less of. If there’s anything you’d like me to do differently, let me know. I was thinking of uploading a new work full of little Olicity family one-shots, so if you want that let me know. All I think about is how cute William, Oliver, and Felicity are as a family, so I have plenty of them in mind. You can also tell me what you might want to see in those.This chapter is a two-parter which obviously means...  
> Tomorrow’s chapter will be called: A Trip Back Home Pt.2


	9. A Trip Back Home Pt.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William takes a Trip back to Central City.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god guys. Yesterday, I totally posted the wrong fucking chapter and I feel like such an idiot right now. Anyways, here’s the actual chapter that comes after A Trip Back Home Pt.1

Oliver's POV

Oliver hunched over his son, shielding him from incoming gunfire. The bullets behind them were pounding, some even making their way to the car.

"Dad?!" William shouted over the horrendous noise.

"I don't know buddy, just get in the car now!"Oliver shouted back. 

He had no idea why he and his son were getting shot at at the moment, but due to his prior phone call, he knew Barry knew something about this.

The bullets were still incoming rapidly, he felt one bullet scrape across his face. It stung like hell but Oliver quickly brushed it off, the only thing that mattered to him in that very moment was getting his son the hell out of there and safe.

He got himself into the car and slammed on the gas, eager to get out of there as quickly as humanly possible. 

"Dad?" William called out again once they were in the road.

"Listen buddy, I don't know, I really don't. I just need to know that you're okay?" Oliver asked his son.

"Yeah, I'm okay... but you're not" William said, pointing out the gash on Oliver's cheek.

"It's okay, buddy. I'm fine, it's just a cut. You're okay that's all that matters, I'm going to get you somewhere safe, okay?" 

William nodded reluctantly, still obviously staring at the gaping hole in his father's face. Oliver reached over to lay a hand in William's knee. 

"Buddy, really, I'm fine. And I don't know why those men were shooting at us, all I know is that you're okay and im going to get you safe, that's all that matters. Ok?" Oliver offered simply, knowing that wasn't enough.

"Okay" William answered back.

Once they were safe in the parking lot of STAR labs, Oliver guided his son to the entry way. He stormed through the gates and into the unsecured facility.

"What the hell, Barry?!" Oliver demanded of him.

"Well, I-" Barry started, quickly noticing William. 

Oliver sighed, noticing what his friend had just noticed. William would only have to turn to face his right and he would see Barry's suit, there on display.

"You're right, Barry. I can take care of it" Oliver said.

Oliver bent down a little and put his hands in William's shoulders. "William, listen to me. I need you to turn and face your left for a moment, do not look to your right. I know you're scared, but everything's is okay, I just need you to stay right here and do not move, Okay?" Oliver said.

"Okay?" William said helplessly.

After about 5 minutes of searching for something to conceal the display Oliver was able to find a sheer-ish sheet in one of the labs. He quickly went back over to the display and covered it with the sheet and a little duct-tape, before retreating back over to his son.

"Okay, buddy. Right this way please" Oliver said as he guided William to a metal table in the corner if the room to sit.

"I will talk to you once I know more, I promise. For now just stay here, and you're free to look over there now if you want" Oliver said as he started to step away and go talk to Barry.

"Kid's taken care of, now tell me what the hell is going on, Barry?" Oliver asked again.

"Whoa, dude. Do you need gauze or something? That's a pretty big gash there, want some help? What happened?" Barry asked, pointing to the cut in Oliver's cheek.

"Barry, I'm fine. Just tell me what's going on" Oliver asked, starting to get frustrated.

"Are you guys okay? Oh my god, did he hurt you?" Barry asked, very worried.

"Did who hurt me- just, look. I have no idea what's going in here and if I don't know, neither does my son. Look at him, Barry. What does he look like to you?" Oliver asked as Barry followed his gaze over to William.

"He looks... scared, and confused, and- I'm sorry, just what happened to you guys?" Barry asked.

"We're in Central City to come and visit his old house, when I was about to take him home, I don't know, something happened. Right after I got your call, gunfire errupted, these men just came from nowhere. They started shooting at us,I didn't know what was happening, I just got here as soon as I could" Oliver responded truthfully.

"If I'm being honest, we don't fully understand what that was either, and not that I'm glad you guys got shot at but I really hope I know the cause of that or we've got a whole other problem on our hands. A kidnapper has been running around Central City kidnapping people of all different ages and ethnicities, the only similarity we could come up with is that they're all male. Whoever this is is pretty great at covering their tracks, too. We don't have a single hit on who this could be" Barry finally answered.

Just then Caitlin, Cisco, Joe, Iris and Harry came into the room.

"Oliver! It's good to see you. Oh my god, are you okay,though? What happened" Caitlin asked.

"Oh, no. Don't worry it's fine. My son and I were shot at recently, I'm just here trying to figure out exactly why" Oliver answered.

"Do you think it was the kidnapper?" Joe asked Barry.

"I'm really hoping, if not the we have an all new player to deal with" Barry said.

"Do we have any update in who this person might be?" Oliver asked.

"Nope, nothing. Whoever this is they've kept their tracks squeaky clean. We've interviewed the the victims closest family. Tre Williams, David Hill, Andrew Boyce and Scott Daniels' families all siad that one second they had been there and then the next, they had just vanished, everything was there exactly where they left it except for the victim" Barry said.

"Okay, Cisco And Iris we need you to try and hack any security feeds around the area of the abductions. Caitlin and Joe, would you please try and fina a connection between the victims. Barry and I will look into the backgrounds of the family members, we'll see if we can find anything that way" Oliver ordered.

It had only been seconds later when the room went silent and everyone started to cringe when Oliver realized what he'd done. He had gotten so used to giving orders in Star City, he hadn't realized that he wasn't really in Star City at the moment. 

"I'm sorry, guys. I'm just used to giving orders" Oliver explained, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger.

"No. I think you're right, we're pretty used to doing things together and looking in one place at a time. If we want to find this guy before he makes his next move, I think we should spread our attention" Iris agreed.

"Okay then. Let's get to work" 

William's POV 

He was beginning to think his father had forgotten about him. He was still there, sitting helplessly at that cold metal table having no information and no clue why he was here or where he was, or let alone why he was just shot at repetatantly. His patience was growing thinner and thinner. He was told he would be taken home after one sort day, but he was beginning to wonder if he was ever going home at this point.

Right as he was about to get up and ask his dad what was going on when a woman with pale skin and caramel colored hair approached him with a smile.

"Hi William, I'm Caitlin. I was wondering if you wanted anything. We have water, or soda,I could even grab you some of the chips Cisco hides in his desk?" She asked poilitely and sweetly.

"No thank you, I'm okay" he told her, although the chips did sound good.

"Okay, let me know if you need anything" she said, stepping away.

William was so worried about his dad. He sometimes got worried when Oliver went in the field, but he had never been this worried before. He had never felt this nervous and anxious about what would happen next, he needed his dad to come over here ASAP, he didn't want to think about what would happen if he didn't.

Oliver's POV 

Looking around at team flash Oliver was so frustrated. The way they chose to run things around here was so different from what he was used to. If they operated like he did in Star City, the might've defeated Zoom in a matter of weeks. He couldn't bare looking around the room as the team focused in one thing at a time, moving so damn slow, which is ironic considering they're literally called team flash. Oh, but God forbid him say anything and take up even more time resolving that issue. Oliver let out a guttural sigh, so stressed out. He was so caught up in work he almost forgot he had a kid for a second, he hurried over to where William was sitting at the table he had been placed at minutes before. 

"Hey, buddy. You doing okay?" Oliver asked, taking a seat next to his son at the table.

"I'd be a little more okay if I know where I was and what was happening" William replied smartly.

Oliver chuckled. "Well, we are at place called,STAR labs. Something is happening and this is the safest place for you" Oliver responded.

"What's happening? Why couldn't you just take me home?" William asked, more helpless now.

"Buddy, we just got shot at, as you know, so right now this is the best place for you until we figure out what's going on, Okay?" Oliver tried to reassure him, as he did so frequently.

"Wouldn't the bunker be safer for us than some laboratory?" William asked.

William was always smart. He knew he couldn't keep much from him ever. If something was going on, which it definitely was, William would have to know.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I bet it would be, but unfortunately, I can't get us home right now. Something has happened, this City is in danger, there is someone out there abducting people from their homes and I have to stay here and help out for a little while" Oliver told him.

William sighed. "Okay"

William's POV 

When he said he wanted information, this is not what he meant. He thought if he knew then somehow they would just be able to go home, everything solved. Not only did he not know exactly what was happening, he was pretty sure he wasn't going home any time soon. He had been worried about his dad and things regarding his father's work before, but never like this, it was never this bad. He felt like any minute he could just snap and lose it.

He was watching his father working with this group of people, he was so obviously stressed and frustrated. Raisa said that his dad always had a rough time when things went out if his control, he could really see that now. He couldn't help but chuckle in the slightest bit.

Right then, he heard a buzzing noise coming from his phone. There was a news alert. An eight year old boy had been kidnapped from his house only about 15 minutes ago.

Right as he was about to walk over and tell his dad about this he overheard Caitlin.

"There was another abduction, an eight year old boy named Toby Larson was kidnapped from his day care about 15 minutes ago" she said.

William relaxed back into his seat, feeling more anxious than before. 

Oliver's POV 

"Yes!" Cisco shouted from the computer monitors. 

"What is it?" Oliver and Barry replied in unison, still franticly working to find any sort of hint of anything.

"I got into all five victims security feeds. It'll take a little longer to dish out similarities, but I got this far" Cisco replies.

Oliver couldn't believe this. It had been all this time and he had just now found and hacked into the security feeds. If Felicity was on this, they would have already found the similarity between the footage, hell, they might've already got the guy.

Oliver let out another huff of air, pushing away his emotions.

"Hey, man. Are you okay? You've been acting off since you've been here" Barry asked.

Oliver let out the most fake, sarcastic, tired chuckle to exist. "Well, if I'm being honest, I'm just a little frustrated with how things are run, that's all. I'm just trying not to let the pot boil over" Oliver replied more honestly than he thought he would.

"Oliver, I've known you long enough to know that this might not be because of how we run things, it's might just be because you're not completely running it" Barry said.

"Oh, I don't doubt that, Barry. Not for a second" 

It wasn't long after that that Oliver realized all the victims had a bit of rough background, most of them had grown up in a single parent household, or were in foster care. Scott Daniels, had very few family members left and was recently placed in a retirement home. Tre Williams was a 16 year old boy who had just lost his father and is now in the foster care system due to that being his only relative left. David Hill was a six year old boy with a father that didn't make it home from the marine core one year, leaving him and his mother to build a life for themselves. Andrew Boyce was a 12 year old boy, living in the foster care system having been left in the street in a card board box as a baby. The last victim was Toby Larson, an eight year old who having just moved to Central City had very little background to look in on other than that he was living with his uncle for the time being.

After that things went pretty quickly they all ran with the idea of that similarity.

Oliver decided after a while that maybe he should have a look at the footage Cisco had been staring at for so long.

"Hey, Cisco, can I have a look at that footage?" Oliver asked stepping over to where he was working. Cisco nodded firmly and Oliver peered over his shoulder to look at the tapes.

After replaying the videos a couple of times it became clear to Oliver that there's was a reoccurring man in all the tapes, he was wearing a thick black coat, carrying a silver brief case. He was in every single tape.

"There's our guy. Black coat, silver brief case, Cisco see what facial recognition can do" Oliver said as he walked back over to Barry.

William's POV 

William was on his phone when he noticed a man walk into the room from a back entry way he hadn't noticed before. He assumed his dad knew him. That was honestly the most interesting thing to happen to him since he'd got here. William just wanted to get up out of there and go home. Before William could realize he was doing it, he started humming along to a song that was on the game he was playing. His humming became more and more relaxed until he began to feel like he was falling asleep, silently he let it happen as he drifted further and further into the relaxation.

Oliver's POV 

"Whooo! We got our guy facial recognition just picked him up as Jackson Fischer" Cisco said.

"Good. Do we have a back ground on him?" Joe asked.

"Ummm... looks like he grew up in an orphanage in Star City"

"Zandia?" Oliver asked, knowingly.

"Um, yeah. The Zandia orphanage in the Glades, how'd you know?" Cisco asked,

"I just do, keep going please" a very stressed Oliver replied.

"After years of bouncing in and out of the system his whole life, he was released on his eighteenth birthday. Soon after that it looks like he got his happy ending he found his birth family... but, a little later after that, 4 years to be exact his family was killed in the undertaking" Cisco said sadly.

"Well,it makes sense for him to have a troubled past, considering his list of victims" Joe said.

"Well, let's consider how he's abducted the victims, Ive been wondering why he didn't disturb anything, but what if that's just his way?" Caitlin offered.

"So, you're saying he might actually want to do some good here?" Oliver asked. He found that hard to believe considering all that he's seen and dealt with.

"Maybe, I mean what if he was trying to shield them from all the bad, that would explain why he chose people with a troubled history" Iris agreed.

"Well, if that's the case, then we need to figure out where this guy's going to strike next so we can move in and extarct the victims as soon as possible"Oliver said.

"Oliver?" Caitlin asked him.

"Yeah?" He answered.

"Have you seen William? He was at the table a minute ago" Caitlin asked.

Those words caused sheer panic in Oliver's heart. He had been ignoring his son the whole time. He was so caught up in work that he just stopped thinking about William. He had stopped looking over every now and then to see if he was okay, maybe if he didn't William would still be here.

Oliver felt everyone in the room go wide-eyed on him.

"Cisco. William has a tracker in his phone I need you hack it, I need you hack it right now, Okay?" Oliver asked out of pure panic.

Cisco nodded frantically and Oliver picked up his own phone to call Felicity.

"Felicity?!" Oliver asked over the phone in a panicked tone (yes, it rhymes. Leave me alone).

"Oliver? Are you okay?" She asked.

"No, no. I'm not. It's William. There's a situation in Central City and I think he's been kidnapped" Oliver said with a voice that was still trembling.

"Oh, my god! Okay. The tracker on his phone I can tell you exactly where he is right now" Felicity said before he heard frantic typing in the computer she was undoubtedly near by.

"Ok! I got him, he's in and abandon warehouse just off of Creighton Avenue" Felicity responded quickly.

"Thank you, Felicity" he said as he hung up.

Oliver may have looked out together but on the inside, he was completely shattered. William was his whole world, he had been kidnapped before, but this time was so different. This time William was his. He was his responsibility and he had just completely ignored him. Oliver couldn't help but blame himself.

"Everyone. We've got the location, he should be at the abandon warehouse off of Creighton Avenue.Suit up." (I felt like there needed to be a period after that sentence).

William's POV 

He was so tired. He couldn't remember when he had fallen asleep, or where he was. All he knew is that he was exhausted. When he woke up, he found himself in a quiet room with a tv on and three other boys there with him. He had no idea where he was and he had no intentions of getting back home, it was nice here, wherever he was. He was so tired, he could barely move. He just sat with the rest of the boys, staring at the television. 

"Who's hungry?" A man wearing a thick black coat walked in and asked them.

All the boys quickly got up and followed the man out to the other room where it smelt like he was cooking something. William did as the other boys and followed.

When he entered the other room there was one other boy and an elderly man there. They had been laid down a sofa taking a nap. Maybe everyone here was just as tired as he was.

Once they finished eating, the man started to lift each one of the boys one by one onto a near by king-sized bed. Once it was his turn to be lifted to the bed, he was surprised at how much care was being put into the movement. The kind man softly cradled the back of William's head, pulling him close up to his chest and laying him in the bed next to the other boys gently. As William started to doze off into his slumber he remembered his father, and where he was before he got here. But, Maybe he was just dreaming and he'd wake up in his bed safe at home.

Oliver's POV 

The blood was boiling through Oliver's veins. The only thing he could think about was William. His William. Yes, there were other boys in danger, but his son was his top priority. William would always be his top priority .always. 

Oliver and Barry came back out to the lab suited up and ready to go.

"Barry. Once we get in there I need you to extract the victims. I'll go in there and distract Fischer. The men that attacked us back at the house, they're more than likely to be guarding the warehouse. If they are, your main goal is still to be extracting the victims, I'll take care of them" Oliver ordered.

Barry sped over to the warehouse and Oliver still refused the transportation and went on his motorcycle.

"Beat you here, and I even gave you a head start" Barry bragged.

Oliver was in no mood for any sort of joking as long as William wasn't safe.

"That's not the priority" Oliver said as he began approaching the warehouse.

Soon enough the men from back at the house began rapidly firing bullets. Despite Oliver's command, Barry used his speed to disarm all of the guards. Oliver huffed and ignored his action, stepping into the warehouses to find William.

William's POV 

William began to wake up. He felt like he was about to puke, whatever was in the food definitely wasn't supposed to be consumed. He was still so tired and all he wanted was to wake up and get back to his dad. He opened his eyes at the sound of rapid gunfire coming from outside of the building. He went into wide-eyed paninc at the sound. He had heard it before. It was earlier today, outside of his old house. He was strting to remember all of what had happened before he was brought to this place. He couldn't remember what happened right before he got here. He was too tired to remember. Before he was relived to come here, it was nice, and the man here treated them so well. Now, he was scared, he wanted his father to come back, he started to realize that he didn't really know where he was or any of the people here. His mother always told him not to talk to strangers or to let anyone he didn't know touch him or take him anywhere. He had completely ignored that today, but he was too tired to get up and leave or to do anything about it. Maybe he put something in the food or maybe he was just so tired anyway, but all he wanted was to get back home and that was all that mattered.

 

Oliver's POV 

Running into the warehouse, the only thing he could think about was William. Maybe if he kept checking up on him he wouldn't be gone, he'd be safe at STAR labs, protected from everything.

He got in and listened for any noise coming from any of the rooms, passing by the east corridor he heard the static of a television going inside the room.

"Flash, I have movement at the east corridor. Extract the victims" Oliver whispered through the coms. Yes, he was tempted to tell Barry to make William the top priority, but he couldn't be focused on tat right now.

"Who have we here?" He heard a man call from behind him. Oliver loaded his bow and aimed it at the man, quickly recognizing him as Jackson Fischer. 

"Where are the victims?" He threatened him.

"Somewhere. Safe. Where no one can hurt them again" Jackson responded quickly.

"They are not safe with you, these people have families, people that love them" he protested.

"Scott Daniels. His family just threw him out, kicked him to the curb and threw him in a retirement home. How is that love?" Fischer said back.

"David Hill. He has a mother at home who is broken without him. She loves him" he tries agian.

"William Clayton. His mother is dead, his father doesn't seem like much of a help. He's a mayor's boy. Can you immagine that, getting no live from anyone, ever" he said.

Hearing that seriously stabbed him in the gut. Maybe it was true, Oliver was out being the green arrow all night and all day he was in a mayor's office. He was in the bunker more than he was at home spending time with William.

Sooner than he expected it Barry sped up to where they were standing and escorted Fischer out of the warehouse followed by the police.

Barry must've noticed his tense look when he asked, "You okay?" 

"Fine, just worried" he responded honestly.

Williams POV

before he knew it he was in somesort of lab, laying down on a bed. He once again had no idea where he was and he was still so tired and helpless.

He was just about to fall back to sleep when a familiar looking woman walked into the room.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" She asked.

"I'm sorry, who are you again?" He asked, putting a hand to his forehead.

"I'm Caitlin... why don't you get some rest here until your dad gets back, okay?" She offered.

William was relieved. He didn't know where he was or really who that woman was, but he knew his father would be coming back soon and that was all he was really concerned about. He didn't know why he couldnt remember much if what had happened that day, it might just be because he was so tired, but right now, he was safe thats all that mattered.

Oliver's POV 

Oliver quickly changed form his suit and headed to STAR labs. The only thing that mattered to him was getting to William and making sure he was safe and okay.

"Hey, where is he?" Oliver asked as he entered the lab.

"He's sleeping in my lab. I ran some tests and found out he was drugged" Caitlin said.

Oliver's heart began to race at what Caitlin had just told him. That's why Barry said there were so many beds with all the kids sleeping, that's probably why most of them were helpless to get out of there.

"Is he okay? Is he hurt?" Oliver asked, the concern rising in his voice.

"Oh! He's fine, Oliver. He's just tired he might be a little nauseated when he wakes up, but other than that he's fine" she answered quickly.

Oliver sighed in relief and walked into the lab where William was holed up. Oliver walked over to the bed side and sat in the chair next to the bed.

He must've woken William up when he sat down as he heard him start to stir awake.

"Hey, buddy" he said to him as he began to sit up.

William yawned and answered. "Hey"

"Are you feeling okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, im just really tired. But, I'm glad you're here" William answered with the sleep still thick in his voice.

"Okay, well why don't sleep and then if you feel up to it I want you to tell me exactly what you think happend, okay?" Oliver asked. Quickly after he realized that his son was slowly falling asleep with very little energy to answer that question.

Oliver chuckled to himself before standing up to press a kiss against William's forehead. His father would always do that when he came home late from work. He remembered when he was about sixteen one night he did that and woke him up. He got so mad at his father and told him that he would have to stop doing that. He recalled the hurt face his dad gave him, it made him sad to think that William would grow up and be like he was some day.

With one last pat to his shoulder, he left the room to let his son sleep. Oliver walked out and shut the door behind him. He wiped his forehead in stress and exhaustion.

"Barry, we need security footage of William's abduction please" Oliver siad.

"Oliver, Fischer's in CCPD custody, we put him away. But, if you seriously want the footage I can get it" Barry said.

Oliver nodded as Barry began working to locate the footage.

"Here it is" Barry said.

They watched the footage of William being drugged and carried out of the room with a surprising amount of care.

Oliver slapped a hand to his face. If he wasn't such a shit parent maybe William would be happy and well right now. Oliver turned around to rest his weight on the table behind him. He sighed deeply before clearing his throat and turning back around.

"Okay... thank you, Barry" Oliver said.

"Yeah, sure. You okay, though?" Barry asked.

What a loaded question. How was he to answer. No, he was not okay, not at all. On the other hand he was alive and breathing, that's all that matters right?

"Barry... you know what don't worry about it, I'm fine, really" Oliver answered, though it felt like a lie.

"Hey, we got him. We put him away, William's safe. If it wasnt for him we wouldn't have been able to get to him in the first place. Don't beat yourself up over this" Barry said.

"If it wasn't for me being such a shit parent" Oliver sighed.

"Hey, my dad was in prison for 15 years. Trust me, you're giving him all he needs" Barry reassured him. 

"He should be with Samantha's parents. If he was there this never would have happened, none of this" 

"What happened to not beating yourself up ?" Barry said. "Youre right, that would probably be the safer option. But, is that really what he wants? William needs his father, please just trust me on that one" Barry said before walking away.

Oliver thought about what he said. He thought of Samantha, speaking to him with her dying breath. She said that William needed a parent, she was right.

Oliver returned to the lab William was sleeping in. He sat there for a while, at the bed side until William woke up.

"Ready to go, buddy?" Oliver asked.

"I thought you wanted me to tell you what happened" William asked through a yawn.

"Let's just forget about that, buddy. I'm ready to go home" Oliver said.

"Yeah, me, too" William said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though I posted the wrong chapter yesterday, I hope you enjoyed. I’m also going to post the other one that I accidentally posted yesterday today, of that makes any sense at all. So, yeah. I’m a mess. Just- yeah...


	10. Anything For You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All I can say is, it’s cute☺️

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the repost of the chapter I accidentally posted yesterday, because I fucked up, so yeah.

William's POV 

After getting back from Central City, William only had about two weeks left of that hell hole which was his school before school was out for the summer. 

William woke up at 6:00 am on the couch after falling asleep last night while watching Shrek and eating almost a whole pint of ice cream. (He didn't care if he was almost in seventh grade. Shrek is amazing, Shrek is good for all ages, Shrek is the very foundation of life itself, and if you wanna disagree with that .Fight.) 

"Well, Good morning. You're still in last night's clothes... please, shower" Raisa said to him as he began to sit up.

"Yeah, sure thing" William said, nodding his head as he made his way to the shower.

When he came out ne got dressed and did his hair differently. He was feeling a little peppy today. Ne was also kind of feeling like he was like he was about to puke from all the ice cream he had eaten last night. Bad feelings aside, he had been feeling pretty good since his trip to Central City. Being not drugged was certainly a great feeling. 

"Good morning, Raisa" he said, walking into the living room.

"Good morning. Let's not pretend I don't know about the pint of ice cream you consumed" Raisa said in a almost scolding tone.

"Sorry" william said shrugging.

"Where was your father during that event?" she asked.

"He was in his room, either working or stressing about something" William sighed.

"Look. I know you don't get as much time with him as you'd like, but he really is trying. You need to give him a break every once and a while, William" said Raisa.

William nodded, taking a bite if his cereal.

Raisa huffed. "You're eating that crap again?" she asked, annoyed.

"I wouldn't have time to eat anything else, I woke up late today" William insisted.

"You're right. You're going to be late, grab your things" Raisa told him.

"Have a good day, William" she said as he was walking out the door.

"Thanks!" William shouted as he was half way out.

William reluctantly loaded himself onto the bus and sat down at an empty seat. To William's surprise, the hot girl from the Highschool sat down next to him. William's throat swelled up and his hands became sweaty. William snapped out of it, wiping his hands against his jeans and clearing his throat. 

The girl wiped her hair from her face gently and smiled to him over her shoulder. William chuckled nervously and shuffled his feet, quickly turning to look at the floor.

"I'm Katherine, by the way. I think we've had too many encounters for you to not know my name" she said, politely.

William was actually dying. He knew of course that this girl was way out of his league. She was in Highschool, he was a sixth grader. He knew he wouldn't have a relationship with this girl, but that didn't change the fact that she was the hottest, most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. He saw her in the bus every day, but it wasn't every day she actually sat next to him! It killed him every time she wore red. She looked most beautiful in red. It didn't help that today she was wearing a wine red lace crop top. 

She laughed her beautiful laugh. "Are you nervous about something?" Katherine asked.

William froze. "No!" He said through possibly the worst voice crack he'd ever had.

William was panicked. If puberty had to come, didn't it understand that now was not the time?

"I-" William started.

She sighed. "It's fine. But, obviously you're nervous about something" 

"Well, I just- You're the last person I would talk to about it" he said. Goddammit William. That was like the worst, most rude thing he could've said.

"I'm sorry. I really am, it's just-... I'm sorry" he tried.

"I feel like I might be saying this a lot, but really, it's fine" she said sweetly.

William was almost relieved now when he just looked at her. The thought of her was so sweet, so pure. It was just what he needed.

"This is my stop. See you later" she said as she stood up to get off the bus.

When William got to the school, he rushed straight for where Jack and Kayla were standing.

"Hey guys!" He said as he approached them.

"Hey" Kayla and Jack said in unison.

"What's up? I mean 'cause you are just glowing" Kayla said as jack began to nod.

William sighed in happiness.

"Look at his eyes! They're sparkling... what do you think? Hot chick?" Jack teased.

"Right on the nose, Jack. But don't laugh now. If you saw her you'd agree. She's so hot"William fantasized.

"She's in Highschool, she rides my bus" William confessed.

"W-w-w-w-w-Wait. She's in Highschool?!?" Kayla started cracking up. "You don't stand a chance, Will. Please, don't burn yourself out trying" she said through her giggles. 

"Hey, maybe she's younger than she looks. She could've skipped a grade" Jack said hopefully.

"Nah, I doubt it. Kayla's right I don't stand a chance" William said as the bell began to ring for the first period.

In math, Ms. cook didn't teach them anything. She said that since schools almost out, she just wanted to have fun.

"Alright, guys. Why don't you just try some of the equations on the board and then I'll pick someone to come up and show it, Alright?" She said as the class began working.

After a few minutes he got the first two problems done with ease. A few more minutes flew by and he had finished all the equations she'd given them. William raised his hand to say that he was done.

"Wow, William. When did you get so good, huh?" She asked proudly.

"My dad's friend was able to help" he said, thinking of Felicity.

"Well, I'm very glad" she said again. "Why don't you go up there and show everyone when they're done, alright?"

William nodded and leaned back in his seat, proudly.

When it was his time to show the equations, of course no one was actually looking, but he had to do it for the sole purpose of Ms. Cook seeing. He had started this year being behind and knowing nothing, now, he would take any opportunity he could to show off his smarts or get the extra credit he deserved. He would always think about Felicity when he was doing so. She had tutored him a few times, it was thanks to her that he had improved so much. He chuckled to himself slightly at the thought of Felicity with his dad. They seriously didn't think he'd notice the flirty looks and nervous laughs they'd give each other occasionally, it was kind of funny.

"Alright, that's it" William said, filling in the answer to the last equation.

"Very good" Ms. cook said, smiling.

"Did everyone catch that?" She said as the class began to nod.

"Alright, the bell should be ringing in about a minute now, so go ahead" she said, motioning to dismiss the class.

William gathered his things and got to his next class promptly when the bell rang.

"Good morning, Mr. Bult" william said, setting his things down on the desk.

"You're early, why?" the angry English teacher asked bitterly.

"My last class was dismissed early, should I leave?" William said with the slightest but if sarcasm.

"No. Why would you leave, thats very foolish of you. Sit down now, the others should be here in a bit" he said, straightening his tie.

William lightly chuckled as he settled into his desk space.

As the others began pouring in to the classroom Mr. Bult began writing something on the board.

"So, class. Today, we are going to be working on poetry. If you can remember properly from last year, which I hope you do," He paused to clear his throat. "Choose a style of poetry you like best and write a poem about your favorite teacher youve had this year" 

William almost felt bad for the bitch. When he saw the turned in sheets if paper, he'd probably notice that, of course, none of them are about him. He didn't give them much reason to be about him. I mean what would that be? William took the tie to think up a great acrostic :

My biggest fear

Really fucking annoying 

Bitchiest person I know

Ugliest haircut I've ever witnessed 

Littlest dick out of the whole sixth grade

Tiniest balls too

William actually pondered the idea if writing that poem in his head but decided that it was a little too much. He decided to write it about his science teacher, Mr. Kevin. He only weote a crappy two line free verse poem. He didn't care if he wasn't doing his best work anymore, with two weekes left of school, report cards had already been filled and he was already locked in for the year.

Hours flew past until it was finally his lunch period, he met Kayla, Jack, and Alexa at their usual spot.

"Hey, guys!" He said, beginning to sit down at the table. The group waved as he took his seat.

"So, Will, when can we start working on that project? I know its not due until the last week of school, but it would be nice to get ahead" Alexa asked. William had completely forgotten about the science project. Biomes: that's all they had to work with. He figured they'd just take a couple pictures of the earth and outside, slide it into a powerpoint and they'd be done. 

"Oh, yeah. Well, I could ask my dad if you could come over sometime, what's your phone number?" he asked.

Alexa grabbed a pen and wrote down the number in a slip of paper. The girl always had everything you could ever need handy in a pocket. 

"Thanks" he said, taking it out of her hand.

"Maybe all of you could come over one day, it would be fun" Will offered.

"ooh, and meet the mayor? Sounds like fun" Jack teased.

William scoffed. "He's not that cool, and he probably wouldn't even be there. He's like never home"

"How can he not be that cool?" Kayla thought aloud. "I've seen the news, he seems like the most bad ass mayor ever, and given that being mayor's a pretty lame job, he's doing great with that" 

"He seems like a huge pain in the ass, no offense" Jack said. 

William shook his head "None taken" 

"My parents are always complaining about some law he's made or something he's done, I don't really know why though, so he's probabky not all that bad" 

William had no clue how they'd ended up talking about Oliver. He hated it. He felt so uncomfortable with the thought of his own father being a public figure that even the kids would know about. He wanted to puke.

"Ew... guys this is weird, why can't we like- change the subject or something?" 

The group talked about lots of other things before lunch was over until the bell rang. When the bell did ring Willim and Alexa headed out to science while Jack and Kayla wehtbto their classes.

"Bye!" Alexa shouted as they walked off.

William waved. "Bye!" Jack waved back.

In science class they were allowed to brainstorm ideas for their project. 

"I honestly don't give a shit about this stupid thing" Will said, wiping his forehead.

"Let's just do what you said and put together some pictures. He did say the Earth was the best example of a biome" Alexa said.

"Yeah, that's what we'll do then" he agreed.

"I'll ask my dad if you can come this weekend, I don't think he has to work, but that normally changes a couple days after he's told me" William sighed.

"Okay, well, if he does then you can just come to my house, my mom's always there. She's a soccer mom for a living, we have a mini van"Alexa joked.

Willaim laughed, though, he felt hollow, like there was just a gaping hole inside him. He would give anything to have a mother like that, or a mother at all.

Oliver's POV

>>>————————>

After Oliver realized what little time he had actually spent with William, Oliver took off work early to go pick up William from school. He knew that he definately wasn't by any means, but he did feel like father of the year right now. He knew he had to be better for William. He couldn't just take off and let Raisa parent his child, it's not what Samantha wanted, and it's not what he or William wanted either.

Oliver hopped out of the car and walked into the school. He hadn't been in one of these in a while. So many preteen bodies and the lack of deodorant was almost unbearable, all the memories came flooding through his mind. He could only hope William wouldn't turn out like that some day.

"Hi, I'm here for William Clayton" Oliver said, as he approached the lady at the front desk.

"Yes, of course, Mr. Mayor" She said, shuffling through papers before picking up the phone.

"You can wait over there, he'll be here any minute now, sir" she said again, setting down the phone.

Oliver nodded and waited over in one of the office chairs. 

When William came into the front office he looked confused.

"Hey, buddy" Oliver said, wearing a huge grin.

"Why are you here, is everything okay?" William asked, with a concerned look.

"Yeah, everything's fine, buddy. I just thought I'd maybe take you out for the day, we could go somewhere, or do whatever you want" He said.

"Oookay?" William said, suspiciously.

Once they were in the car, headed wherever, Oliver finally asked: "How was your day, buddy?"

"It was fine. We didn't really do anything" he said almost uncomfortably.

"Hmm"Oliver hummed. He noticed William taking something from his pocket, a piece of paper and started to fidget with it. Oliver knew what that was, he had seen them plenty in his day, and when he was about William's age, that's when it started. It had to be some girl's phone number, how cute. Oliver chuckled to himself.

"What'cha got there, kiddo?"he asked.

William shrugged his shoulders. "It's nothin'" he said. Oliver knew better.

"Can I see it?" he asked, still sure of himself.

"Why?" William snapped protectively.

"Well, if it's nothing, then, I guess I'll just..." Oliver leaned over to the passenger side to slip the paper out of his hands. When he looked at it he wasn't surprised when he saw a phone number written in nice, neat handwriting on the note.

"Dad!" William complained, grasping for the paper.

"What's this, buddy?"Oliver said, smiling. "Or, maybe, who is this?" He joked, nudging him.

"It's not like that, she's a friend. I was gonna ask if she could come over to work on our science project this weekend" William said, clearly wanting to laugh.

"Okay. We'll talk about it later, buddy. I don't know if I can be home this weekend" It pained Oliver to say those words. He couldn't even get off for one weekend to spend time with his son.

"You're not home a lot, Dad" William sighed.

Oliver sighed and wiped his forehead. "I know, buddy. And I'm trying to be, trust me. It's just hard, you know" he tried to explain.

William nodded simply. "I know" He said sadly.

Oliver ruffled his son's hair with his hand. "Cheer up, kiddo. Where do you wanna go, hm?"

"I don't know. What is there?" He asked, looking out the window.

"I don't know, buddy. It's your choice" He said. He noticed a small smirk climb up William's cheeks. Oliver was scared of his son would ask next.

Oliver sighed. "What are you thinking?"

"Well, I've always wanted to see what you keep calling the bunker" William said, smiling.

Oliver didn't even need to think about it. The answer was so obviously no. No. Absolutely not, under no circumstances would William be allowed down there or any place like it ever. He was expecting something like going to get ice cream out of this, he was not just allowing his kid to waltz in to a weaponized, fully armed underground bunker. 

"Uh sorry, kiddo. But, no" he said quickly and firmly.

"But, you said anywhere I wanted, and that's all I wanna do now. You know you won't be able to distract me from this, Dad" William begged.

Oliver knew what he was doing. William would always add Dad to the end of a sentence when he wanted something, he knew how much Oliver adored being called Dad. Even so, there was absolutely no chance William would ever be allowed in the bunker.

"No. I'm not letting you go down there. Not until you're at least 18" he said.

"Why not? I've literally never done anything bad before, I'll be careful, I won't touch anything all I wanna do is see it" William pleaded.

"William, you've only been here for a couple months, I can't trust that" Oliver said, beginning to get a little frustrated.

"What if one day something happened, and I couldn't get to you and I needed help. Then, I would need to know where to go and what to do. You could just show me how to be safe" William might as well be on his knees begging like a dog at this point. But, unfortunately for Oliver, William had a habit of making excellent points. This just happened to be one of them. Living in Star City, it wasn't guaranteed that nothing bad would ever happen to you or your family. And one day, although Oliver hated to think about it, something along those lines could happen to William. Oliver might as well give in, he knew that if he didn't just do this today, William would never stop begging him for it.

Oliver huffed, as he couldn't believe that he was about to give in.

"Okay, fine. But only if you dont touch anything unless I say it's okay, and just listen to me... and please just try not to get hurt, and yeah- ... just don't drag me through hell over this, William" Oliver was now begging his son.

A wide smile spread like butter across William's face, one Oliver hadn't seen since the day he first met William, playing with action figures in his bedroom. 

Oliver made a u-turn and began to drive.

"So are we really going?" William asked eagerly.

"Yea, buddy. We're really going" Oliver said through a laugh.

William bounced around in his seat. It made Oliver smile to see his kid so happy, this was something he could've never imagined a few months ago. William had surely come a long way since then, and Oliver was so proud if his boy.

"Why are we here? I thought we were going to the bunker" William said as they pulled up to their apartment complex.

"We have to drop the car off, we're gonna walk there. We can't have our car anywhere around there where people could see" Oliver explained.

"Okay" William said, taking his backpack out if the car.

"Alright, you have to stay with me, Okay?" Oliver made sure before they got going.

William nodded as they headed toward the old mayoral campaign office.

"Okay, it's just up there, buddy. We have to go quick so no one sees us, Alright?" Oliver prepared him.

"Okay" William nodded as they approached the office.

"Okay, follow me" Oliver said as they quickly stepped into the building.

Oliver tapped the spot in the wall before the elevator emerged from the wall. Oliver heard a small, almost silent "Whoa" coming from William's direction. Oliver scoffed.

"Step in, buddy" he said as the two of them hopped into the elevator

"This is so cool already, I can't believe you do this every day" William said in awe.

When they stepped off the elevator they were approached by Jhon Diggle.

"Hey, man" John said to Oliver, eyeing William.

Oliver's nodded. "William would you please give us a minute? Wait right here, don't move and do not touch anything" he said very strictly.

Oliver lead Digg over to the corner.

"He's only here because I picked him up from school, asked him where he wanted to go and he insisted. I don't like it just as much as you don't" Oliver explained to his friend.

"It's fine, Oliver. It's just what is the point of him being down here? If he's anything like you, Oliver, then it might not be the best idea" Jhon said.

"What do you mean if he's anything like me?" Oliver asked.

"If he can control himself down here, and if you can" Said Digg.

"Look. I can control myself, so can he. He said he should come down here for safety reasons, if something ever happens. He tends to make points even I can't argue with" Oliver sighed, wiping his face.

"Alright, man. I can trust that. So when do I get to meet my godson?" John asked with a smirk.

"Godson?" Oliver thought about it. When he thought about it no, there was no one else he'd consider. "Well, yeah I guess. Congratulations, he's your godson" Oliver said simply.

"One more thing to tell Lyla" Digg stated.

Oliver nodded as they approached William once again.

"William, this is John Diggle"Oliver introduced William as the two shook hands.

"You can call me Jhon" Diggle said.

"William, look at me" Oliver got his son's attention. "It's Mr. Diggle"

William nodded.

"Around him it is" Digg whispered in William's ear.

William laughed and nodded to John.

William's POV 

"Do you think you could teach me how to shoot one of those some day?" William asked, staring at Thea's old bow.

"No. Absolutely not. No. Don't even dream, kid" His dad told him firmly.

William sighed as he observed the bunker deeper.

"Was that really my aunt's?" Will asked, still staring at the red and black bow.

"Yup. Your aunt Thea used to help me protect the city before she got hurt" His father sighed, clearly missing her.

"Well, if you let her..." William thought aloud.

"William. No. And to be clear, I technically was not the one to allow it" Oliver made clear.

"Well, what if-" 

"William, save it. I don't wanna hear anymore of it. It's a no" Oliver said at once.

William tensed. Oliver had never really spoke to him that way before. William didn't know what to say.

"I-I'm sorry, Dad" William tried to say.

His father sighed. "I'm sorry buddy. I hate to think of you ever being in the situation where you might need to know how to shoot a bow, or anything like that. My answer is still no"

"I know. I get it" William agreed.

"Enough of this. Let's go get ice cream, huh?" his dad offered.

William nodded eagerly as they headed out of the bunker.

When they got to the ice cream place, William ordered a triple chocolate chip ice cream with a sickening amount of chocolate syrup. Knowing Oliver, he just got vanilla.(like his personality)

(I'm sorry)

"I don't know how you can eat that" Oliver looked over to his son, totally grossed out.

"It's good" William said, with a mouth full of chocolate.

Oliver shook his head and handed William a much needed napkin.

Soon later they got in the car, ready to go home.

"Did you have fun, buddy?" Oliver asked,

"Yeah, the bunker's really cool. Do you think I can go see aunt Thea sometime soon?" William asked. Knowing that he had an aunt and that he'd never truly seen her besides the pictures around the house and the ones his dad had shown him just didn't sit right with him. Especially now knowing that she used to be a kick ass vigilantes like his dad.

"Yeah, sure. But, you do know she's in a coma right?" Oliver wanted to make sure.

"Yeah, Of course. But I just wanna see her and maybe I can bring flowers or something" William said knowing that she wouldn't be able to enjoy them anyway.

His father smiled in a way that he had only seen when he looked at Felicity. "Okay, buddy" 

"I can't believe she used to help you. Everyone in this family's such a bad ass" William almost muttered.

"Yeah, kind of a habit I guess" His dad joked.

When they got home it was already 5:13. They had spent longer at the bunker than they thought.

"Hey, buddy. You want to help me make dinner?" Oliver asked.

William got himself up off the couch. "Uhh... sure"

Oliver's POV 

>>—————————————->

He had been wanting William to cook with his for months now, tonight was the time he'd actually do it.

"Can you go get me that pot in the drawer?" He asked William as he rushed off to fetch the pot.

Oliver was in awe. His son seemed to be just as good a cook as he was, or... close. He was having a good time being with his son today.

"Okay, just put the salt in there for me please?" Oliver asked as he moved around the kitchen.

"Dad? You should turn the stove down, its really hot, it smells burnt" William said in a concerned tone.

"Nah, buddy. Its fine I've got it" Oliver reassured him 

"Ok?" William nodded hesitantly.

After a couple minutes Dinner had been made and Oliver hadn't been this happy in months. Only William's could make him feel this way.

"This is good, Dad" William siad as he ate.

"Thanks for helping, buddy" Oliver said smiling widely at his son.

"Yeah, it was fun" William said, nodding.

This warmed Oliver's heart to no end. Knowing that he had gotten somewhere with his son and him being for the first time since he moved here happy, made Oliver the most happy person in the world. When William first came here he was so,lost and broken, now that William had adjusted well, he was beginning to show that he was really happy here. It meant the world to Oliver's that his son was happy. William was his entire world, his entire life. Everything important revolves around William. If William was happy, that's all that's mattered.

"When can Alexa come over to work in the project?" William asked.

Oliver sighed. "I can do this week end, buddy. As of right now I'm off of work so unless something changes, that's when" Oliver said.

"Dad, You're never home. And you're probably gonna go back out tonight" William finally said, dropping his fork to the table.

Oliver let out a gasp of air. He knew this would come up at some point, he just don't know that it would be now.

"Look buddy," Oliver started, leaning across the table to better face William. "I know I'm not here much, and I'm so sorry I really wish it was different. But, I do have a plan and I'm... working on the details of it but I promise you I will be here for you more. I can't promise that this will be forever, but, William I promise to do my absolute best every day to be the very best father that I can be, okay?" Oliver said.

William nodded and watered down at his plate.

"Wanna come watch tv with me?" William asked.

"Yeah, Of course. Let me clean up a little first, I'll be there" Oliver promised.

William nodded excitedly and ran off the the couch.

Oliver laughed and started to clean off the dishes.

When he finished Oliver grabbed a blanket and sat in the couch next to his son.

"What do you wanna watch buddy?" William shrugged and scrolled through the channels.

After a while of scrolling through channels they settled on a local hockey game that was on.

Oliver yawned and swung an arm around William's shoulders.Soon after, William let out a similar yawn and pressed his head into his father's chest.

"I'm tired, Dad" William said, wrapping himself tighter around Oliver. "I know. It's okay. Shhhhhh” Oliver whisperd in return, wrapping his arms around the boy, protectively.

Oliver just sat there, completely in shock of the moment, he just sat there, holding his son as tight as he could while his son's head was still buried deep into his chest. He started to rub small circles across William's back as he felt him start to slowly fall sleep. Oliver kissed the top of the boy's head as he reached for the remote, Turing off the hockey game. 

Oliver felt his phone buzz in his pocket, he wasn't going to answer, but he quickly realized that it would wake William up. It was a text from Felicity. This made Oliver smile.

F:Coming tonight?

F: it's okay if you're busy we can totally handle it

F:ok.

Oliver laughed at her adorable need to babble even via text. 

O: Sorry, catch me up later. I'm with William now, he's asleep

O:thank you for covering, you're the best

F:of course. Anything for you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed. Sorry for the fuck up with the chapter thing, by the way. I’ve already written the first twelve chapters in advance, so in two chapters I’ll be ready to start including your requests and suggestions. Make sure to tell me now what you want to see more and less of, or maybe anything totally different. Tomorrow’s chapter is really packed and it changes a lot in the story for a while. I’m really excited to post that.  
> Saturday: If The Secret Gets Out


	11. If The Secret Gets Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver is outed as the Green Arrow. William finds it hard to concentrate on life with everything that’s going on.

William woke up to about one million news alerts on his phone.He wiped his eyes and picked up the phone. William scrolled through the text, reading horrible things about his father. Killer, murderer, torturer, he read through the biased reports, not believing the words. He gasped when he saw the picture of his dad wearing his Green Arrow suit. 

 

This photo of Mayor Oliver Queen was sent in to local news stations at 9:53 last night. 

 

 

 

The mayor was shockingly outed wearing the outfit of well known criminal. Evidence suggests that the mayor has secretly been engaging in vigilantism for the past six years. Queen could be facing 25 to life in jail in account of murder, burglary, assult, and kidnapping, stemming from his acts as the green arrow.

William's palms began to sweat and his throat felt like it had been drained dry. He ran a shaking hand through his hair and pulled the sheets back up close to his chest. William pinched his eyes shut tightly and reluctantly forced himself to throw the phone back down to his night stand. 

25 to life in prison. What would happen if his dad went away for that long, or if went to prison for life? What would happen to him? There was no one else, he would be alone, he would have nobody. William started to panic at the thought of his reality. This was even worse than when his mother died, and William didn't think it got any worse than that. If he had a father out there somewhere, and he knew he couldn't be with him, he couldn't protect him, he knew that he was struggling, that would just drag him through hell. At least he knew that Samantha was in a better place is not struggling any longer, and although he wishes she could still be there with him, he knows that that's better for her. Prison wouldn't be better for his dad, that would be far worse. He imagined Oliver in prison, away from his city, his home and everyone and everything he loves the most. The thought made him sick, why would he have to go to jail when he put most of the criminals in there anyway. It didn't seem fair to him.

William tried to stop himself from doing so, but he grasped over to the nightstand and reached for his phone. He saw a text from Alexa and he started to get a little more relieved. 

A: omg, I saw your dad on the news

A: Are you okay?

A: what's gonna happen?

William stared down at the texts, he was completely helpless, he had no idea how to answer these questions. He still wanted those answers himself.

W: I wish I knew what would happen

W: and to answer the first question-

W: well no I'm not okay

W: the kids will be talking about it today. I only just found out I haven't even talked to my dad yet

A: I'm so sorry Will. I have to go but we'll talk today

W:k see you

Will let out a shaky breath of air. He leaned back into his bed and put a hand to his forehead before making himself sit up and get out of the bed to get ready for today. And a hell of a day he had ahead of him.

"Good morning, buddy" Oliver said as he slid open his door.

"Don't try to act like everything's normal. I have internet" William said almost sarcasticly with a sad shrug of his shoulders. 

"No, William. Everything is not normal, not even close" Oliver said as he stopped to run a hand down his stressed and tired eyes. "But, I have faith in my team, and I promise you that this will blow over, buddy. Just give it some time, okay?"

"Fine" William shrugged agian. "I'll just wait for 25 to life blow over, Dad. You can't act like everything's okay. When has it ever been?" 

"William, I promise-" Oliver started, but he was soon cut off.

"No, Dad. You've tried that before. You know its not true, so please just stop. I have to go now. I'll be late " William huffed, grabbing his backpack and stomping out the door.

William walked along the path of the apartment complex. He looked ahead without knowing what would come next. All the apartment doors created a trail for him to follow along to get outside. He bit his tounge as he walked, thinking about what all the kids would be saying about him and his father almost as soon as he stepped foot on the bus. It was nothing he didn't know how to deal with. What he did not know how to deal with was when people would ask him if his dad really was the green arrow. What would he say? Yes, of course he was, but he could never tell them that. He made a promise to his father that he would never let the secret get out. And if he broke that promise, then it would make him someone he did not want to be. It would make him just like his father.

William sighed and forced himself onto the bus he dreaded so much. Will sat in an empty seat and started to distract himself from all the chaos in his world by reading a few chapters of his biology text book.

The bus stopped again, all the other kids came in, flooding the bus with trash talk and an unpleasant odor. Behind him he heard children whispering his name with words mayor, green arrow, and Queen frequently thrown in to the chatter. Will didn't bother to engage in a conversation, or even to look up from his book, he couldn't give them the satisfaction. But William knew that sooner or later he would have to deal with it, his own father's mistakes, his own crusade had had fallen into his shoulders and there was nothing he could do about that. 

William looked up from the textbook when he noticed that Nick and the rest of his friends had approached him, laughing obnoxiously at some shit. William rolled his eyes and looked at the bastards in all their glory. If looks could kill, then those boys would be no more thanks to William.

"Well, here he is, boys. Why don't we just ask him?" one of Nick's friends who was too unimportant to know the name of said to him as the group took the seats next to him. 

"So, Kid. Is Daddy the Green Arrow? Or are you important enough to even know" Nick teased snobbishly, looking at William like gum on the side of the road. It happened already, He had already been asked the jaw dropping question, and he had just the faintest idea of how to act. But when he really thought about it, the words came to him, pouring out of his mouth wittily and smoothly. 

"My dad is not a fucking super hero. If he was seriously serving as mayor by day and running around as the Green Arrow by night, then that really would make him one. But, he's not. I would know, he's not anywhere close" William lied through his teeth, fighting the urge slap the bitch in front of every single person on that bus.

"Well, I guess we'll see then" the other boy said, grabbing his penis through his shorts.

"No one ever told you not to grab your micro-penis in public? Don't worry, you're not impressing anyone, it doesn't look like Katherine's here today, not that she'd be impressed anyway" William said with the thought of Katherine still raw in his heart. It almost made him happy to hear her name said aloud, more than he thought it would. Even if it was coming from his own mouth, the thought of her was exactly what he needed right now.

"Like yours is any bigger" one boy he'd never talked to before said uncomfortably.

William was slightly offended, but needless to say he was an honest person, and honestly it probably wasn't.

"That's probably true. But I'm talking to the one with the smallest out of all of us, so maybe you should show some honestly too" William said, getting a little annoyed and wanting to go back to his book to get things off his mind.

Just in time the bus came to a stop and William rushed to get off before anyone else.

William ran over to where he usually met up with his friends, in a desperate hurry to talk about what was going on. They always knew what to say and how to help. They were some of the few people he knew he could trust. It was nice to talk to friends about things. Friends don't sugar coat everything and talk to you like a kid, they give you the truth, and sometimes that's hard, but they always had a way of making things seem better anyway. He was so lucky to have friends like that.

William walked over to where Jack, Kayla, and Alexa were waiting.

"Will? Are you okay?" Jack asked cautiously, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"No. I'm not fucking okay!" Will said as the tears came buring into his eyes. He swallowed hard and pushed them back, he couldn't let them see.

Jack pulled him by the arm and lead him into a small hallway that the students normally use to work in projects and things.

"Jack. What are you doing?" William asked as he was being dragged over, his voice was still thick with tears.

Jack said nothing as he pulled William into a tight hug, as if he'd never let go. William felt the tears sting back again and this time, he couldn't stop them from flowing down his cheeks. Something about this made William feel so safe, and so comforted. It was something he had never felt before, something no one else could give him, like he understood exactly what was happening. William didn't speak, he just sat there in his friend's arms and let everything pour out. It felt like he could just stay there forever, nothing bad would ever happen again.

They stayed like that for a few minutes until William had calmed down and wiped away his tears to then pull away from the tight, friendly embrace. William took a deep breath and looked back at Jack.

But then, something he could only describe as weird happened. Jack had this look on his face as he took a breath. It was like, laughing, smiling, but hurting and so, so loving. It was loving in a way that William had never loved anyone before. No one had ever looked at him like that. Like he was the one thing that existed and everything around him could just disappear and they'd never look away. Jack didn't look like he wanted to look away. William felt Jack's hands gently and lovingly creep up his spine until they were almost, just barely cupping the sides of William's face. William got so scared. He had no idea how to act. Jack hadn't looked away, though. He was still giving him that look that stabbed him in the gut knowing that he only would just be able to disappoint him in the end. The look that no one ever gave him. The look that said everything that Jack wanted to tell him. It was gentle, and protective and loving. It was just so wierd.

William took a sharp, harsh deep breath, as he eyed Jack's hands by the side of his face. William almost took off running in fear when as if on cue, the bell chimed for first period and William rejected his touch, turning away without any last glance.

"Saved by the mother fucking bell" William said under his breath with a shaky, low voice.

For the rest of the day, William barely thought about school. He kept replaying that moment with Jack in his mind over and over. Half his thoughts were consumed by stress and worry with his dad. It was like he developed a pattern. He kept thinking about one moment in the hall and repeating to himself: 25 to life, loving, wierd. 25 to life, loving, wierd...

He had so much on his mind and so much was happening, he just couldn't think straight. So many emotions were consuming him, eating him alive. He couldn't think of anything else. 

"William" his math teacher, Ms. Cook snapped at him, calling him back to reality.

William did nothing but shake his head, keeping his focus not on her, but in the same corner he'd been looking at the whole time.

"Will?" She continued to ask. William drowned out every sound with his own thoughts, it was like every time anyone said a word, all he could hear was 25 to life. Over and over on constant replay in his head.

"Do you need a minute?" Ms.Cook asked, tapping on the desk. That seemed to snap William back into reality. He looked around at the entire class just staring at him. No one was staring at him the way Jack had today, not a single one.

"No, I'm-" William paused and thought about what he'd say, he needed to think about something. "No, ma'am" 

"Alright" she said continuing her lesson. William hated the sense of pitty that had overcome her voice. He didn't need anyone's pitty, not ever. It made him sick.

After the class was dismissed and the bell rang, William found his legs were shaking and he sat there, finding it so emotionally difficult to stand up.

"You know what, William, can you stay for a bit?" Ms.Cook asked when she noticed the struggle.

William stayed sitting and nodded his head, without making eye contact. Though, he would've preferred to say no.

"I know it must be hard to have to go through this, William, but I promise that it will get better" she said as she reached out to grasp his arm. William still couldn't look at her. He couldn't think about anything else right now. It was all too much. How would she know if things were to get better. 25 to life doesn't get better, he didn't see how it would. He hadn't been able to tell anyone about Jack yet. He needed to let someone know. He wanted so badly to just run home crying to his dad, he wanted to be wrapped up in his arms without a harm in the world and just be told, truthfully that everything would be okay. But, he wasn't really on a talking basis with his father right now, let alone a hugging basis. He knew he had to put his childish needs aside and be independent like he always had been. The thing was that he had been that way for so long that he could just snap if kept it up any longer. He needed time. Time to process whatever the hell was going on, time to process his reality and everything that was happening. Things were piling up and he had no idea how to deal with it.

William shook his head, making eye contact with her for the first time.

He sighed deeply. "Thank you.. really. But I'm fine" William said as he gathered his things and walked out if the class for second period.

Everything was a blur to William up until lunch. He had spent the last couple hours thinking about what had happened with Jack, and the shit with his dad and everything that was tied into that. The only thing he could see happening was that moment in the hallway, and the picture of Oliver, standing in the Green Arrow suit. It was like he was watching a video on replay, and all it was was that moment in the hall, and the news anchor repeating 25 to life over and over again as the audio.

William ran his finger tips against the lockers as he walked down the halls to lunch. 

William didn't know what to say when he saw Jack sitting at the table. He looked completely zoned out, so deep into his own thoughts, maybe he was feeling the same exact way he did.

Both the girls sat down in their normal seats, probably expecting William to sit next to Jack like normal. But, he couldn't. He tried. He couldn't. He couldn't just go mozy on iver there and pretend that everything was normal, it was very far from normal, it was anything but normal.

William walked over behind Alexa and bent down to whisper in her ear, not shooting a single glance in Jack's direction, he was terrified of being looked at the way Jack had looked at him again.

"Can you sit over there with me? Please? I need to talk, please" William pleaded, whispering helplessly in Alexa's ear.

Alexa gave a quick look to the rest of the group before worriedly turning to William an nodding her head. 

The pair walked down to the other end of the table, Alexa looked back at a very confused Kayla, while Jack seemed to understand. William couldn't find it in him to look at Jack. Something about the was he looked at him scared William so much. He was terrified of ever being looked at that way again. It was the way Oliver looked at Felicity when he thought he was being subtle, but more intense, and obvious. Will could never let that happen again. He could never be touched that way by anyone ever again, he never did anything about his position. He didn't say no and he didn't just walk away. He couldn't let himself be put in a situation where he felt like he needed a rape whistle. Of course, this isn't what that was, but if he did nothing about this, then that just made him think: would I do anything if the position was more intense?

Finally, after all the thinking he crammed into just a few seconds, he and Alxa had arrived at the table and began to sit down.

"Will? What's wrong? Is it about your dad?" Alexa asked very worriedly.

"Yes. Its about my dad, its about Jack, its about the way he-... looked at me, and-" William inhaled a deep breath, preparing to let everything he knew pour out of his mouth.

"Wait. Jack? What did he do- he didn't hurt you did he?" Alexa asked, confused about what she'd just been told.

William thought about the question at hand good and well before answering. No. Jack did not physically hurt him. But, just to touch someone like that, to look at him like that, that felt so wierd. It hurt so wierd. It hurt in a sense of William could never love him, he didn't think he could love anyone like that, and he would only hurt Jack and disappoint him in the end.

"Yes?" William told, mostly to himself.

"Will," Alexa said in sympathy, sounding so entirely shocked. "What did he do to you... and why would he do something like that?" 

"No? I-I don't know. He never hurt me physically, he would never do that. Or- I-I hope he would never do that... It's just, before first period, when he dragged me somewhere, he took me to the hallway, where everyone does their work. And, he-he hugged me and I-I started crying i-into his shoulder. And I... I let go and he just looked at me." William did his best to explain.

"He looked at you?" Alexa said, shaking her head and grabbing William's hand.

"Yeah... He looked at me. He looked at me like I was the only person to ever exsist. It was so clear what he was trying to say, and it was so intense. It was so loving and warm and it was like everything he wanted to tell me was right there" He said, shaking a little now. He didn't want to remember this at all, but he knew that if he kept it in and told no one, then it would only make things worse.

It was silent for a moment, both of them knowing fully what Jack was trying to say, and what it meant. 

Thankfully, Alexa took a gasp of air and began to speak: "What. Did. He... mean? Will. I need to to say it aloud, you need to understand" Alexa demanded, yet so gently asked of him. She always had a way of that.

Of course he knew what it meant, William was far from stupid. But, he couldn't say it. He wasn't ready. William couldn't except the idea. As soon as it was out in the open, everything would change. 

"Lex, I'm not ready. I'm sorry, I can't. But- I have to tell you something else" William begged of her.

"Of course. Tell me" She replied warmly.

"When he-... when he looked at me, he touched me. He moved his hands up my back, and it-it sent shivers down my spine, and cupped my cheeks. I hated every second if it, Lex. The feeling of his heart just breaking with every single look he gave me. It can't happen again, I don't know what I'd do" William said, having almost come to a breaking point.

"Am I the first person you've told? Have you talked to him?" Alexa asked with such a strong, unbreakable voice. Even in the worst of moments she was never one to break.

"Yes. And no. I can't talk to him ever again. He'll hate me. He's gonna hate me. God, Lex, what do I do? I can't stop thinking about it. I can't stop thinking about a lot of things and it's all just piling up on me. I might not even have to worry about him soon. I'm gonna have to go live with my grandparents in the middle of nowhere. 25 to life, Alexa. That's what my dad's looking at here. I can't do this" 

"Will. Calm down, breathe" She reassured him. William did as he was told and took a few deep breaths.

"Don't talk about it like it's a done deal, Will. You don't know for sure if you're dad's going to prison and you don't know if you're going to go live with your grandparents or not. If your dad really is the Green Arrow, and I'm not asking you if he is, and you don't have to tell me. Ever. But, if he is, then I know that he is strong, and he is going to fight with every goddamn bone in his body to get back to you. And if he is the Green Arrow then he is not letting some bastards with a badge carry him off to prison any time soon. Okay Will?" Alexa said, so sure of herself as she placed a hand in William's shoulder.

Her words seemed to calm him so well. It was like when Oliver told him that he would always come back. But this time, he really believed it. And he knew that Alexa was smart, so smart, and she would never tell him anything like that if she didn't strongly believe that it was true. That comforted him, and it lifted weight off his shoulders to hear such things coming from her mouth.

"Thank you so much. I love you, Alexa" William said as he leaned over to give her a tight hug.

"Of course, any time. I love you too, Will" She agreed and excepted the hug.

William tugged away and looked up at her.

"Just, keep me updated, alright?" She asked .

"Yeah. Of course" he said as the bell rang for the next block.

Today, William didn't wave goodbye when they went their seperate ways. He couldn't look at him ever again. He only walked off by Alexa's side as she turned and waved goodbye. William pulled past Alexa and made it to science beofre anyone else.

Just like all his other teachers had done today, Mr. Kevin looked up at him in a combination of pitty, worry, and confusion, having obviously heard the news about the mayor.

Once the others filled in the empty seats, he began his lesson.

"So. Today, I'm giving you the time to study, work on projects and any other incomplete work you need to get done. As you know, projects and templates are due in 9 days. I would start working on the project itself right about now" he explained as the rest of the class began chattering about their plans for the project.

William walked over to Alexa's seat and they began working. The both of them hadn't said a word about what happened at lunch, or anything regarding that. Right now, William just needed to focus on the task at hand, which was why he got a little pissed off when Alexa said: "You know, if you want an escape, you could come over sometime. Maybe we could work on the project there, with everything that's going on with your dad. Or, I totally get it if we have to work alone with everything happening"

"I'm fine, and we can do that if you want. I just don't wanna talk about that right now. Can we just work on this" William said, pointing down at their templates.

"Sorry, I get it" she said, picking up her pencil again.

"Nobody gets it" William mumbled to himself, still working on the packet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading that latest chapter there. I’m really excited to start exploring William’s love-life more in the next couple of chapters. It’s just sort of a fun thing to play with, though, I don’t think that it will last that long. I’m planning on doing a cute little Family fic with William, Oliver, and maybe Felicity some time soon, so if you want that just stay tuned. Sadly, I won’t be updating until next Friday. I have a crazy busy week so I won’t really have the time until then.  
> Friday: The Light Withinn The Tunnel


	12. The Light Within The Tunnel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William and Oliver realize the importance of having someone special in their lives.

William was in bed, staring up at the spinning ceiling fan, his thoughts flying past him at one million miles an hour. It was late, or maybe it was early. He didn't know anymore, he didn't know much of anything anymore. The thought was still running fresh in his mind that his father could be arrested and taken into custody at any moment in time. He wasn't very stressed out anymore, he wasn't really worried either. He had oddly just excepted that his life was going to shit and he had just moved on. He didn't want to be dramatic about it anymore. He was done sharing his emotions with anyone but himself. A sudden feeling had came upon him, a feeling that he was the only one he could trust. Everything seemed to change so much in the course of one day. Since everything went down with Jack and with everything still waiting to be played out with his father. Sleep seemed like a thing of the past for William. All he felt he could do was stare helplessly at the ceiling fan that just kept spinning, spinning, spinning. It was starting to make his head spin just as fast.

William jumped up in bed when he heard the front door to his apartment whoosh open. He tensed his shoulders as he braced himself for what might happen. He relaxed when he heard the rustling of keys slam onto the table, followed by a crash on the couch with a muffled sigh.

It was Oliver. He had just come back from a late night at the bunker. It's not the first time this had happened. His dad would come home, too tired to even walk to bed. So he passed out on the couch, without changing, or taking a shower or anything. It made William want to throw up, seeing, let alone just hearing his dad like that. It was so hard for him, and there was nothing William could do about it.

William huffed deeply and hauled his ass out of the bed.

He met his dad on the couch, where he was already sleeping soundly. William quickly noticed a laceration on the top of his left eye brow. It looked pretty bad. William felt his chest begin to close and his breathing sped up. William rushed around the apartment and found a blanket in the coat closet. He draped it over Oliver's limp body and tried to tell himself that it would be okay. That's what his dad would tell him. But, it just felt like he was lying to himself.

Satisfied that his father wouldn't freeze over night, Will wiped a stressed, worried hand across his face and returned to his room. William burried himself underneath the blankets and once again, stared at the ceiling. It was going to be a hell of a night.

 

Oliver's POV 

>>>———>>———->

Oliver woke up on the couch at 6:00 am. Only an hour later after he'd crashed on the couch for the night. He looked around, after he'd wiped his eyes in deep stress. There was a blanket. It was William's. It was Samantha's old blanket. "William", Oliver thought, so proud of his son with everything he's gone through.Leave it to William to still be worried about his dad, despite the fact that they weren't even on a talking basis with each other. William had refused to talk to him ever since he got home from school yesterday. Oliver had gotten used to knowing everything that was happening in his kid's life and them talking about everything these past few weeks. Even just one night without verbal interaction was gut wrenching for him. Oliver would normally go to wake William up at this time, but he decided he'd give him space.Oliver took a deep sigh and hauled himself up off the couch to enjoy a warm shower, waking William up via knocking on the door as he passed by.

William's POV 

William woke to the sound of a fist pounding on his door. It was his father. He was glad that he didn't come in today, he didn't want to see him, he didn't really want to see anyone, let alone go to school today. He didn't know he could deal with that again. It's not like he'd be learning anything. All he'd be able to think about was his dad being imprisoned at any moment. Maybe if he was there, he could help. Or maybe seeing it happen would make him feel beter about the whole thing. Maybe, it would make him feel a lot worse for not being able to do anything. All things considered, William wanted to be there. He had to be there.

Oliver's POV

>>>——>>———>

Oliver didn't realize how long he'd been in the shower, basking in the warmth of the water flowing down his body, as he looked down at his skin and saw that it had turned lobster pink. He turned off the shower and slipped out of it.

Zipping up his pants, Oliver hurried out of the bathroom.

When Oliver returned to the living room, he was surprised to see Felicity there, looking as beautiful as ever.

"Felicity, what are you doing here? You said you had something to tell me? Is this it?" Oliver asked, nervous about what she had to tell him.

"Yes. Kind of, well, now that you've reminded me, yes. But, there is another little thing. But, I know its early, and you're busy, so-..." Felicity cut her ramble short, knowing that she needed to get to the point. Oliver was the first to speak.

"Hey, you can come to me with anything. I'm not busy, so please, Felicity, tell me" He said, moving his hands to grip her waist, pulling her closer.

Oliver's heart stopped when he saw the scared, worried, anxious look on Felicity's face.

Felicity's POV

Two weeks ago...

Felicity knew that it was that time of the month again. She marked it on her calendar and knew that today would be the day.

She grabbed a tampon and a pair of underwear before hurrying to the bathroom.

She stopped when she realized that apparently, it was not in fact that time again. She was very confused and a little worried. She hadn't gotten it last month, which meant that this month she surely would. The first thing she thought of was Oliver. They had sex a month ago... unprotected sex. Which means that Felicity not getting her period two months straight three weeks after could not be a coincidence. Felicity grasped the edge of the sink and started to panic. This couldn't be it, she was still young, and she was still technically single. She couldn't even say it to herself, not even in her head. How was she going to say it to Oliver. 

No. This might all be in her head, she could be freaking out for nothing. She had to believe that these were all just coincidences. They had to be. This couldn't happen. Not yet at least.

Felicity ran a scared, weak, shaking hand through her yellow and brown locks. She felt the tears burn hot in her eyes. She couldn't hold them back this time, her tears ran down her rosy cheeks. 

"I have to tell Oliver," she thought to herself "He'll know what to do, just like he always does"

Present day... 

Felicity after all this time, finally found herself getting in a car and driving to Oliver's apartment with a pregnancy test in hand. She was going to do it with Oliver, she needed someone there. Her palm sweat in the clutch of the tiny stick she was holding. She had no idea why she was so afraid of that small little stick. Maybe it was more than that, maybe it was the outcome, or maybe just the whole thing in general. She couldn't focus on that right now, she could only focus on the task at hand: getting to Oliver.

When she arrived at Oliver's apartment complex, she took one good look at the pregnancy test. She was sure. She didn't really have a choice. 

She knocked on the door as she inhaled a deep, skaky breath.

"Hey, Felicity. My dad's in the bathroon right now. I was just leaving" William said as he opened the door for her. He seemed so angry at something, or someone. She wished she had the time to talk to him about it, but before she knew it, he was out the door.

Felicity sat down on the sofa and waited. She was so incredibly nervous about this. She fiddled with the tiny stick in her hand for a while, sliding her thumb back and fourth across the plastic surface. Soon enough, Oliver emerged from the bathroom. He looked so tired, so utterly exhausted.

"Felicity, what are you doing here? You said you had something to tell me? Is this it?" he asked, so weirdly eager and worried at the same time.

"Yes. Kind of, well, now that you've reminded me, yes. But I know its early, and you're busy, so-..." Felicity realized she was rambling and cut herself off. There were things she needed to tell him. Work related things. But, she was afraid that if she didn't tell him now, then she would lose her courage and end up not telling him. She couldn't let that happen. She needed to bite the bullet and make it happen now. But, Oliver spoke first.

"Hey, you can come to me with anything. I'm not busy, so please, Felicity, tell me" he said, calmingly as she felt his hands climb up her waist, pulling her in close.

"Oliver I'm pregnant" she blurted out, her words coming out quicker and clearer than she expected. Shit. She did it. The secret was out. 

Oliver replied with a combonation of a shocked, worried, concerned, confused, and yet very questioning look.

"Well actually, I don't really know if I am. But, I came her because I wanted to do the test with you. I haven't gotten my period in two months and we had unprotected sex about two months ago, so that just made me really concerned. But, I didn't wanna worry you because like, if I was pregnant then it would be your baby and I didn't wanna put all that on you. I just-... I have this gut feeling" Felicity took a deep breath and finished. Oliver was just beyond anything she'd ever seen him like before. She didn't know this look on him. She didn't know what he felt.

"Felicity. Please, just go take the test. And- and where is my kid, I just- I just saw him, I- I'm sorry, Felicity. I don't know what to say and I don't know what to feel, just take the damn test, okay?" he said, with not anger in his voice, not happiness, just pure fear and worry.

"Okay, alright, I will... Oh! and William left when he let me in, don't worry" she said as she hurried to the bathroom.

Felicity's hands were shaking. She couldn't do it. She wasn't married yet. How could this happen? 

She didn't realize how long it'd been when Oliver knocked on the door.

"Felicity, babe? Are you okay in there? Do you need something, I can help?" Oliver said, his voice muffled through the door.

Felicity wasn't expecting it when a flood of tears escaped her eyes, she had no idea what to do. 

Oliver thankfully came bursting into the room.

"Felicity, what is it?" He said, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her forhead.

They swayed like that for a while, sitting there on the bathroom floor, before Oliver spoke.

"Felicity Meagan Smoak, you are the strongest person I know. You can do this. We're going to do this together, okay?" He told her, every word calming and reassuring her. 

Felicity nodded her head and inhaled a good, deep breath.

With one last smile and a nod she started to take the test. She was holding Oliver's hand every step of the way.

It took a little while, but soon, the test was done. 

Felicity shut her eyes tight, shaking her head, she couldn't bring herself to look at it. But, Oliver was there, he made everything easier.

"It's okay Felicity..." he said, rubbing her back gently.

"What does it say?" She said, still refusing to look.

She felt Oliver start to rub small circles all across her back.

"Felicity..." Oliver started. Felicity felt the anticipation start to build up in her stomach. "It's a no" he finally finished.

Felicity was somewhat relieved, but at the same time a little disappointed. She didn't really know how to feel about all this. All she knew was that she didnt have a baby to worry about, nor would she any time soon, all she had to deal with now was Oliver. She was so grateful for that.

"I'm sorry, Oliver. I really thought-"

"No, Felicity. Don't be sorry. Just promise me you'll go home now and get some rest, you look like you need it" Oliver pleaded. Which was a little hypocrital of him to say.

"Oliver... I have to say, you've looked better. Maybe you should get some rest too?" Felicity asked suggestively, leaning into his side.

"Or... maybe, we could do that together?" He said, just as suggestively, running his hands like waterfalls through her hair.

"Mm-hmm..." Felicity agreed, tugging on the collar of his shirt.

"Yes" Oliver breathed into her hair, beginning to rip off her shirt.

William's POV

William was sitting in class. He didn't care what his teacher was saying. None of it mattered. His father could be in prison at this very moment and he would have no idea. He has no way of knowing, except for maybe when he comes home, his dad will be gone. And then he'll have no one there. He'll have nowhere to go.

"Sit up! Listen, you've been out of it all period. Now, tell me Mr. Queen, what was the last thing I said?" His bitchy Spanich teacher snapped at him.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, I don't know what you said. And it's Clayton, by the way" William was quick to respond to that.

"Sure. Now sit up and listen please" she said again, gesturing her hands upward.

When lunch rolled around, he was still totally out of it. Kids were whispering and pointing as he walked down the halls, but he didn't care. He couldn't think about that right now.

"Will!" Kayla called as she joined him, walking to lunch.

Will sighed. "What?" He said plainly.

"Oh, dang. You okay?" Kayla said, almost joking.

"My short answer to that is no, Kay" he said, still having not turned to face her yet.

"Damn. Same. But,-... wait. Is this about Jack?" 

William stopped in his tracks. No one was supposed to know about this except for Alexa.

"Shit, Kayla! How do you know" William said, almost angry.

"I can't talk about it without hurting Jack, I'm sorry. But, all you need to know is that I know" she said back.

"I honestly don't really care about anyone's feeling right now, but, okay, I guess" He replied, still not facing her.

"Still not sitting with him, huh?" Kayla asked.

"K, I can't. Do you know how awkward that would be? I'm never talking to him again" William protested.

"Well, all I'm saying is that you're gonna have to at some point. You should just rip off the band-aid now" said Kayla.

"No. Not yet at least. Not until I know the full story... and I think I'm only getting that from you" William finally turned to look at her, begging for information.

Kayla inhaled deeply. "Fine. I'll sit with you today and I'll tell you everything. Just-... you can't tell anyone I told you, okay?" Kayla pleaded.

"Sure. Anything, just tell me" William said, nodding his head.

When they finally rolled over to the table, they sat on the opposite end that Jack and Alexa would be at.

William hurried to sit down, banging his tray on the table.

"Tell me everything" Will said.

"Jack came to me like... I don't know a day before everything happened in the hallway with you two. He said... God, I can't believe I'm telling you this, but he said-" Kayla stopped, looking at the floor and shaking her head.

"K, you have to tell me, it's my business, too" William begged again.

"Ok. Yeah," she started again. "He said that from the minute he invited you to sit with us he knew he loved you... and when we got to know you, you were so sweet and it just made him love you more. And then it got... I don't know I guess it got to be too much to deal with for him, so that day when he took you into the hallway, it wasn't for you... it was for him, I guess" Kayla answered at last. Will felt bad. She looked as if she was disappointed in herself having shared Jack's secret. He couldn't help but feel guilty.

"Wow. I don't know what to say. I mean, what do I say to him after all that?" 

 

"Will, I don't know. Maybe you just shouldn't talk to him" She suggested.

"What do you mean? I thought you said I had to rip the band-aid off?" He said.

"You do! I still mean that, but you don't have to talk to him verbally" she explained.

"You mean, like write a letter or something?" Will asked. "This isn't the 1800s, I think I'm good"

"Would you rather say it to his face?" Kayla reasoned.

William sighed, as if he had given up already.

"No, I don't . Fine. I'll do it, but you have to read it before I give it to him, okay?" He asked.

"Boy, I was already planning on forcing you to let me, anyway" Kayla said with a playful punch to his arm.

By the time he was headed home on the bus, he had already thought of 1,000,000 things to say in that letter. He just had no idea how to frame everything into something he actually wanted to say. He had too much on his mind, he just needed to get home. He needed to be with his dad before it was too late.

When he walked into the door, Felicity was there, reading some huge textbook and doing something on a small tablet at the same time.

"Oh! Hey William" Felicity said, obviously startled.

"Oh, sorry to scare you... Is Dad here?" William asked, starting to get a little worried.

"He just left. He had some fund-raiser thingy, 'cause, ya know... he's the mayor and everything" she said.

William's heart began to race. He didn't know how, but he had he had to get there.

"Umm, Felicity?" He began to ask.

"Yeah, Will?" She answered quickly.

"Do you mind taking me there?" He finished.

"Ummm... yeah? I- I mean, sure. Let's go!" She said with pep.

Felicity really was a life saver. She was like a light in William and Oliver's lives. He knew he couldn't be more grateful for that. He really hoped she stuck around.

Once they got in the car head to the event, he had to admit, it was pretty awkward.

"So, William, how was school?" She's asked.

William let in a breath of air. "It was honestly kind of awful" he answered.

William felt like he could tell her everything and be honest with her about whatever was going on.

"Why was it so bad, huh?" She asked, looking over at him.

"All I could think about was dad. How he could be arrested at any time?"

"Hmmmm... that's why you wanted to go to the fund raiser, huh? So you could see him before it happened?" Felicity asked. It was like she was reading his mind. She got him, she really knew what it was like. Felicity was perfect.

William nodded.

"Well, I kinda took care of the photo of your dad in the suit. So, I don't think that's going to happen any time soon, okay?" She reassured him, just like she always did.

"Oh... okay" William nodded, feeling so much more relieved.

When they pulled up to the site there were lots of people there. Reporters, police officers, hundreds of civilians, but, he couldn't manage to see his father upon everyone that was there.

"Okay, Will. Your dad's right over there, we should probably go see him, Okay?" Felicity said as they joined the crowd of people.

William stepped over to his dad. 

"Hey, buddy. W-what are you doing here?" Oliver said, looking confused and still very busy.

"I-I wanted to see you. I was worried about you" He said truthfully. William hadn't even wanted to talk to him lately, now all he wanted was to be with his father.

"C'mere, buddy" his father said as he wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"I'm sorry. But, I'm here now okay?" His dad said.

Willia, nodded and pulled away.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" William asked.

Oliver scoffed. "What? You didn't read the huge banner at the front of the tent, or any of the dozens of signs everywhere?" He teased playfully.

"No. I just wanted to see you" he answered, feeling a little embarrassed at such childish desires.

"Well, kiddo, we are trying to help raise money for the Star City National Homelessness and Hunger Society, and unveiling our new precinct...And- did Felicity bring you?" He asked, very concerned, his eyes dancing around the area, looking for her.

"It's okay, dad. I asked Felicity to bring me, I think she went to the bathroom... could you not worry so much for once?" He teased.

"Buddy, no. I can't. Just- go find her please, I want her to stand with us for my speech" Oliver said, shooing William away to go find Felicity.

"Wow", William thought. He wanted her to stand with them for the speech? That was surprising. They must be getting serious then. William didn't know how to feel about that. He loves Felicity. Who wouldn't? She's great. She's funny, she's smart, she's nice, and she understands him and makes him feel comfortable, like he can tell her anything. What's not to love? But he started thinking about what it would be like if Oliver and Felicity got married? That would be like having another mom. William wasn't ready for that.

"Hey!" Felicity said as she hurried over to William.

"Hey. Dad's looking for you. He said he wants you to stand with him for a speech thingy" William explained.

"Oh, Okay" Felicity said as she payed her hands on his shoulders to guide him back to his father.

When they got back over to his dad, he was talking to a man that hi said father called Quinton. Someone from work probably.

"Hey, Bab-" Oliver blushed and cleared his throat, which made William chuckle to himself. "Hi, Felicity" he finished as he waved an arm for them to join him for the speech.

William, Oliver, and Felicity stepped up to the elevated surface and Oliver began to speak.

"Thank you all so much for coming today, guys. This really means a ton to Felicity, to William, to myself, that we can all come together as a city and help the hungry and homeless of Star City. Across these Various food drives with all of your help, the citizens of Star City have raised over 22 hundred dollars to help feed and house the most needy of our city. Which is why I am so immensely proud to be here today at the unveiling of our new precinct. It is an absolute top of the line facility, for an absolute top of the line police force-" 

Everyone stopped when a very powerful woman with a smug expression on her face strolled in the site with an army government officials behind her. But then William realized that those weren't just any government officials... this was the F.B.I. It could all be happening here amd now, William was glad he was here, but he wasn't ready for it.

"A facility that might actually make federal agencies jealous!" His father said, stepping off the podium to speak to the woman.

William couldn't make out what they were saying, but a few seconds after that, he could hear.

"Mr. Queen, You're under arrest" The woman said. William felt Felicity's grip tighten on his shoulder.

"Under what charges?!" Quinton stepped in and asked.

"Murder. Burglary. Assult. Kidnapping. All stemming from your activity as the Green Arrow" The woman said coldly with no expression on her face.

William was beyond worried. His chest was pounding and his heart was swollen with regret. He shouldn't have been here. William indistinctly heard Felicity call his name from behind, but he wasn't worried about that.

"Dad?!" William called to his father as he was taken into handcuffs and escorted from the site.

"It'll be fine, buddy, I promise" he called back.

Felicity pulled William by his arm to face her.

"It's okay, Alright? He's going to be fine" Felicity said softly and calmingly before pulling him into a hug.

Felicity could always make everything so much better. Those words coming from her mouth mattered more than if they were to come out of anyone else's. She was so gentle and reassuring. She was so amazing that way.

Sadly, Felicity's amazing personality didn't help the fact that his father had just been arrested. It didn't seem like either of them knew what to do. 

Felicity let out fort of a fake chuckle, probably to help cheer him up.

"Well, why don't we get off of this huge pedestal, people are staring" she said. She was so calm, like she wasn't even worried about the situation at all. It was so refreshing.

They were sitting in a comfortable silence when they interrupted by an FBI agent. 

"Ms. Smaok, The mayor wants to see him" she commanded,gesturing toward William, like Watson with no expression on her face at all.

Felicity nodded, grabbing William's hand and following the agent.

She lead them into the precinct, and soon they arrived at a small door.

"Right in there, kid" she said, still making no eye contact, but her voice sounded more friendly that time.

With one last nod from Felicity, William shyly creaked open the door and stepped in. When he entered, there was his dad, standing awkwardly by the table, bouncing his fingers up and down on the wood.

"Hey, buddy" Oliver began.

"I thought you said the picture was fake?" William asked immediately.

"Hey, I know..." he said, stepping forward to pay his hands on William's shoulders. "Miss agent Watson here, has a solid case against me, alright? But, it's going to be okay. We've been through something like this before. Not exactly like this, but, something like this"

William nodded along, though he was still worried to death.

"For now, go home, and Felicity will be there, and Raisa will be there, and I will be there just as soon as I can. I-I need you to be as strong and as brave as I know you can be... Okay?" 

William nodded again, excepting what he just heard.

"C'mere" he whispered into Will's ear, hugging him closely.

Oliver wrapped his arms around His son protectively, and soon William did the same.

William was surprised when his dad left a warm, loving kiss on his forehead, smiling back at him and playing with his hair.

"It's going to be okay, buddy" he cooed into his ear, slightly pulling away from the hug.

"Time's up Mr.Queen" said agent Watson, strutting into the room.

William looked up at his father worriedly.

"It's okay. Go" he said, drawing his fingers through William's hair one last time.

When he exited the room, there was Felicity standing right there, ready to anchor and protect him.

Felicity's face read a pitiful and apologetic expression. He loved that Felicity cared about him so much, but he didn't need that. He wanted to do just what his father had told him to do, go home with Felicity and Raisa.

"Let's just go" he said, looking straight ahead.

"Okay" Felicity said, squeezing his shoulder in such reassurance.

Felicity was surely amazing. William knew that she was just what he and his father needed. They needed some sort of light. William knew that she was exactly that.

They drove home in complete silence. At first it was awkward, much like it wasn't the way there, but it surely settled into a peaceful, calm scene, it made him feel somewhat okay about everything that was going on.

When they arrived at the apartment, Raisa was surely there right when the door opened.

"Are you Alright?" She asked, seeming very concerned, cupping his cheeks with both of her hands in that old Raisa way like she always did.

"I'm fine" William definitely wasn't in the mood to talk. He tugged away from Raisa and darted off to his room.

Felicity's POV

Raisa worriedly turned her attention to Felicity, after seeing poor Will run off to hide in his room.

"What will happen to him if Mr. Oliver goes to jail?" Raisa asked in that sweet Russian accent that Felicity could just listen to for hours.

"He's not going to jail, Raisa. He's not the Green Arrow" Felicity lied, which she was hoping was a very convincing one.

Raisa nodded and promptly walked over to the kitchen to start dinner. That woman was the greatest.

Felicity nervously took a seat on the couch and whipped out her phone to contact the team. She's contacted the first person she thought of: John Diggle.

F: Watson just totally arrested Oliver in front of pretty much the entire frakking world

F: I can not believe this bitch

F: she had no right especially not in front of William

F: I can not believe her rn

J: Wait, hold on Felicity.

J: Is this on the news?

Felicity almost scoffed at the question. It was probably on every channel.

F:yes, grandpa, most likely

F:just turn the tv on Any freaking channel

J: Okay Felicity, calm down. We'll get him out of there. We've dealt with something like this before.

That didn't seem to be enough for Felicity. 

F: I'm coming to the bunker.

Felicity thought that if she typed a period then it would make that final. Oh, was she wrong.

J: No.Stay with William. His dad was just arrested, the last thing he needs is someone else leaving.

She laughed at his need to use proper grammar and perfect punctuation even via text. But, he was right, she needed to stay with William. It would be cruel of her to leave now.

F: k

F: cu tomorrow then

J: Sounds good. And Felicity?

Felicity sighed.

F: hmm????

J: You don't need to separate all of your questions and comments. It would be okay if you just sent them in one combined text.

F: Y

F:e

F:a

F:h

F:,

F: o

F:k.

Felicity joked.

J: Oh, Felicity...

 

Oliver's POV

>>>——>>—->

Oliver sat in the cold 8x10 cell, sitting lifelessly on the bed.

All he could think of was his son. William meant the world to him and he had put him through so much pain and worry. He hated to do this to his son. He remembered the little time they shared in the interrogation room, and the kiss he left for William on his forehead. He hated that he wasn't there for his kid. But, he knew that Felicity was there. He knew that she would make everything okay for him. She was just what he needed, she was just what they needed. She was like some sort of light. She was absolutely perfect.

Oliver's happy thoughts were interrupted by footsteps of thick boots echoing through the cell block.

Oliver was relieved to see that they were Dinah's.

"Are you okay, Oliver?" she asked through the metal bars.

"I'm fine, Dinah" he said in truth.

That didn't seem like it reassured her enough.

"Tell me what you need?" she asked again.

"I need some sleep" he replied, still thinking of William.

"I can do you one better" she stepped in closer to whisper. "FBI transfers can get lost, locks can be left open" she offered deviously.

"I appreciate that, Dinah. But, if I make myself a fugitive... then I'm obviously making William an orphan" he said exactly what he had been thinking the whole time.

"I know. You gotta do it the right way" she agreed.

"Yup. I gotta do it the right way" Oliver repeated.

"Good night" Dinah sighed.

"Good night" Oliver finished before laying his head back on the crappy pillow. He was in for a long night.

William's POV 

William sat at his desk at home, staring at the blank piece of paper ahead of him. William knew just what he wanted to say to Jack, and yet he had no idea what to say and how to say it. Will slammed his pencil on the desk in frustration. He wished he could talk to Samantha about this. She would know what to do and how to help him. Times like these, William really wished she could be there.

William had no idea how to even frame this. If he said Dear, Jack, then that might be a little suggestive with the dear and all. He wanted to make the point clear that he was not interested. But, if he just said Jack, then that might give the impression that he was angry or upset. That wasn't the case, he just wanted to get the point across, not something like that. And, not to mention at the end: would he say Love, William or would he just say - William. He always hated when people only put their names at the bottom, it always seemed kind of stupid to him.

William sighed. He needed help with this. He finally just picked up the phone and texted Kayla, she would know. She was never afraid of being honest, or speaking her mind, she would know how to write a letter like this. After all, she was the one who suggested it.

W: idk what to say in this letter

W: help.

K: I told u just say what u feel

William pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. That thought had crossed his mind 1,000,000 times. That piece of advice wasn't as helpful as he would've liked it to be.

W: I've tried that about one million times

W: I don't know what to say

K:um

K: ok

K: I'll tell you to say something just to get it started and you tell me if it sounds right 

W: sure. I'm desperate

K: you could start by saying that you know what happened and why. But still don't say that I told you

William nodded to himself and started the letter.

Jack, 

I want you to know that I've been thinking about what happened a lot. And I know the full story of why it happened now. 

He started to write but he stopped again.

He sent a copy of that to Kayla.

K: good

K: just try to keep going from there

K: k?

William took the girl's advice and kept writing.

Felicity's POV 

Felicity realized that William had been in his room for a fairly long time. She decided that it was time to go in and check on him.

Felicity respectfully knocked on the door before entering.

"Who is it?!" Will called from the other side.

"It's just me, can I come in?" Felicity heard some rustling around of paper before he answered.

"Yeah, sure" he called back.

Felicity slid open the door and stepped in.

"You okay, buddy?" Felicity asked. She quickly regretted calling him buddy. There was a line. That was Dad's thing. Not her thing. She said a mental sorry in her head.

William didn't seem to care, though, when he said: "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just really worried about Dad"he answered, staring at the floor.

Felicity came up behind the chair he was sitting in and laid her hand on his shoulder.

"Well, the good news is that your dad's arraignment is tomorrow morning, so then we get a chance to kick some ass. But, until then, we're just going to have to hold off" she said trying to be totally honest with him, and not talk to him like he was a kid, but as if he were just any other person.

William gave a half-smile that looked so much like Oliver, she couldn't help herself.

"You really are Oliver's son, aren't you?" She said, eying his thumb and index finger doing that cute little fidgety thing that Oliver always does.

"What do you mean?" He asked soon after.

"I mean, the look on your face you have even right now. It looks just like your dad" she explained.

"Really?" He asked, as if in disbelief. "I didn't think I looked anything like him" 

"Are you kidding me? You have the exact same eyes. You both do that fidgety thing with your fingers, and the eyebrow you raise when you're worried or confused. Oh, my god, it's like a mini Oliver" she laughed.

William's cheeks turned red in embarrassment, which looked exactly like Oliver, too.

"Okaaaay..." he said, clearly embarrassed.

"I'm sorry for embarrassing you. But, what I said is very true" she teased, ruffling his chocolate brown locks.

"Okay. I'll leave you alone now, I guess" she said, tip-toeing out of the room with William, still very embarrassed.

William's POV

It had taken him forever, but William finally had the letter written to give to Jack. But, he would have to show Kayla first. He read over the letter one last time, making sure that it was perfect.

Jack

I want you to know that I've been thinking about what happened a lot. And I know the full store of why it happened now. And, I don't want you to get upset over this, I'm not worth all that.

If you really loved me, I'm sorry that you felt like you couldn't just come to me. I should've been made that clear that you could. The way you looked at me in the hallway was a look that I never want to get again. I know that you meant well, but it terrified me. I've never been looked at like that before. Your look said everything that I wish you would've just told me. And I've never felt like looking at anyone like that. I've never felt that way about anyone. If you felt that way about me I really wish you would've told me sooner. The way you touched me, when you drew your hands up my back and touched my face, it made me sick. I didn't know what to do. That's why I ran off. I wish that I would've handled this better. I know you couldn't help yourself, but the way you just decided to touch me wasn't okay. I couldn't tell you all this in person because I didn't want to see the hurt look on your face when I told you. It would just kill me. I never wanted to hurt you. But, I'm not worth getting hurt over. I promise you that I am not all of what you think I am, and I don't know why you think so highly of me. It never hit me before that you would've liked me. I gess I should've seen it. I remember the one time, when we were waiting in the school yard for our parents to pick us up. You said something really funny, and I faked falling on the ground, laughing, and you pretended to fall too. I rememer how when you fell, you sort of rolled over to me and we touched in sort of a wierd way. i didn't see it then, but I see it now. all those times when little things like that happened, they weren't accidents. 

I'm so sorry that all I can do is disappoint you. I wish it wasn't like this. I wish we could just be friends again. But, I know that after this that probably won't happen again. I love you, but I can't love you like that, and I'm so, so sorry. 

Will

It looked good to him. He just needed to show Kayla.

W: ???

K: hu?

W: I finished it

K: cool send me a pic

William nervously sent her a picture of the letter. He didn't know how she'd react when she read all those personal things.

K: bro.

K: ur sweet and all but this is a grammatical tragedy

William laughed, realizing that he wasn't the best writer. Kayla was really good at English and she knew her grammar well. He knew there'd be a few corrections for her to give.

W: here we go...

K: there needs to be a comma after Jack. You spelled store instead of story. You should capitalize i in the first and second paragraph. You forgot the u in gess . And don't forget the hyphen before your name

William sighed. He expected a couple, but not that much.

K: you also start a lot of sentences with and or but

Right when he thought it was over. It wasn't. He wouldn't even bother to fix those. That's too much to deal with, she'll have to live with it.

W: is it good???

W: I'm gonna give it to him tomorrow 

K: other than what I said it's perfect, Will

K: after the letter we'll just go from there

William inhaled in anticipation of the next couple of days.

W:k.

Oliver's POV

>>>—->>—->

His arraignment was today. All he could think about was William still. His son had been sitting at home for the past day with Felicity and Raisa. He was sure Felicity took great care of him. And since it would be a wprld-wide phenomenon if Felicity prepared something eatable, he knew that Raisa was keeping William fed and alive too.

He checked his watch, which by some miracle they let him keep on and saw that it was almost time. The arraignment was in 35 minutes. He was happy just to be getting out of the cell, although he knew that this didn't mean that he was getting out forever. He was grateful for just that.

He was staring at the ceiling and didn't realize how much time had passed when a Baird walked over to his cell, informing him that they would be transferring him for the arraignment soon.

Soon, they took him into handcuffs and loaded him into a the vehicle for transfer. Oliver sighed as he excepted that there was probably no escaping this.But, Felicity would be there. Just like she always was. She would make everything okay, and better. When Oliver thought of her he thought of the saying The Light At The End Of The Tunnel. But, that wasn't nearly true for them. With the life they live, the tunnel was endless. Felicity was like his and William's light at the almost end of the tunnel, she was their light within the tunnel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And... I’m back! Let me know what you guys think, I love all the lovely little comments. I would really like some prompt ideas for my other story here, I will pretty much do absolutely anything you want so just let me know. A lot will happen in tomorrow’s chapter. It will mostly be just wrapping certain situations up, but it’s a pretty good one.  
> Tomorrow: Do You Love Me?


	13. Do You Love Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William deals with the inevitable figuring out who you are and everything that comes along with that.

It was the day of his father's Trial. He wasn't going, he would be in school, but, Felicity reassured him that she would never let anything bad happen to his dad. He wasn't worried about that, though. He would go to school today and he would finally deliver his letter to Jack. That's all he cared about. 

Despite his father being on trial, he was actually having a great day. There was only three more days left of school, and then, he'd be free, until September that is. But, he wasn't thinking about that today, he was happy that it was the end of the year now. Everything seemed to be falling into place now, instead of crumbling around him. Ever since he wrote that letter it's like his whole world opened up. He thought about the letter a lot. He didn't know how to feel anymore, he didn't know what he felt. He had never loved anyone, at least not like that. But, then again, how would he know if he did? He had never felt that before. 

"Bye, Felicity!" He said happily on the way out the door.

"Bye!" she waved back.

William took the happy path down the hallway he always did to get outside and to the bus.

William did as usual and took a seat at the very back of the bus when he got on it. He screamed on the inside when by some miracle, Katherine decided to sit next to him today, too.

"Oh! Hey..." he said, sort of awkwardly to her.

She just smiled back and continued looking at her phone.

God, her smile. He could look at that for hours... 

"Oh. Maybe I do know what Love feels like..." William thought to himself, still eyeing Katherine from the corner of his eye.

No. This wasn't love. This was just simply Wow, she's hot! Ok. Maybe, he did like her a little bit, but it wasn't anything sexual. He was still young. William had googled his father before, he knew about his pre-island period. He prayed to God that he would never turn out like that. He had never really thought about doing something like that before. Ew. This needed to stop, he didn't want to think about that anymore.

William's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a whispered Shit, coming from Katherine's mouth. William laughed a little to himself. She doesn't know he heard it.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Mm-mm..." she said shaking her head, still focused on her phone.

"What happened?" he said, a little concerned now.

She sighed as if she were annoyed. "Nothing" said Katherine, still refusing to make eye-contact.

William finally decided to leave her alone and give up trying. What was happening? Maybe it was just drama. She was a teenage girl, and she was in Highschool. It was probably nothing. He was worrying too much, just like he always did. He caught himself doing that fidgety thing with his fingers, just like his dad. Felicity was right, he was just like his father. 

The bus finally came to the first stop at the Highschool. He watched as Katherine's got off the bus without saying a word, or even breaking her satre at the phone. She looked angry as she speedwalked off the bus. She's almost tripped when she approached the first step, but it was right then when she started to look away from the phone for a minute.

He had to admit... that was pretty cute. Why was this so difficult? Why couldn't he figure out his feelings? It seemed like everyone else had, some people his age were even dating by now. They were mostly straight Caucasian assholes, but even so, they were dating. This was all so simple for all of them, why wasn't it for him? He did have his father's genes, he thought that meant he would be in love by now. But, he wasn't. He never had been. 

He discontinued his thoughts when the bus stopped again, at his school this time. He rushed to where all his friends were waiting. Well, two people were waiting. Jack had stopped hanging out with them after everything happened. Not that one more friend would make his sound any less lame. 

"Do you have it?" Kayla whispered in his ear when he came by.

He nodded, fishing it out of his back pack.

"What?" Alexa said, not knowing the full situation.

William looked at Kayla to be sure he could tell her. At her nod, she began to explain.

"Kayla said I should write a letter for Jack, so... I did" he said handing it to her.

He waited for any kind of expression on her face as she was reading.

"Will. This is-... wow" she said, handing it back to him.

"Thanks, I think?" He teased.

"You're sweet" She said again. "Me and Kayla could try to talk to him today of you want?" 

"W-w-wait. You can. I'm not prepared to cringe that much" Kayla said, thrownig her hands up in defense.

"Okay. I will talk to him today" she said, with a slight glare at Kayla.

"Yeah. Thanks" William said right before the bell rand for first period.

"Okay. Bye, guys" said Will as the three of them waved and went their seperate ways.

For the first time in weeks, William was enjoying class. He was paying a respectful ammount of attention, finally.

A few weeks ago, in science, William and Alexa had to awkwardly explain why they hadn't done their project. Every time he walks into science class now, he just laughs about it. He didn't want to think about why they hadn't been able to do it. He just wanted to have a good day for once, and so far, that was working. Will had one class with Jack. He would have to give it to him then. They were never allowed to talk, or do anything in that class, so it might take a while to get it to him. 

William suddenly became nervous about this. What if someone saw the letter, and then everyone would know the truth. He wasn't so much worried about that, but he was worried about people knowing the wrong truth. If people knew, then William would be able to handle that. But Jack wouldn't. This says more about Jack than it does himself. If he hurt him like that he would never be able to forgive himself. He would be the one responsible. He knew neither Alexa or Kayla would tell anyone, but gossip spread like wild fire around this school. He wouldn't be able to hide it of anyone else found out.

William took his seat in Spanish class, gripping the folded up letter in his palm. He had to do this now. Jack was sitting two seats away drom him. All he had to do was slip it over there and everything would be fine. 

William coughed a little to grasp Jack's attention. When he got it, he held out the letter under his desk, waving it around a little so that he'd see it. Luckily the bitchy old Mrs. Williams was turned around, either doing some work or playing solitare. She never did any actual work though.

He felt Jack slip the note out of his hands and William realized that he was suddenly standing right next to him. William gulped audibly as he felt his Jack's presence start to melt away.

Jack's POV

Ever since he had hugged William in the hallway, everything in his world sort of just froze. He had been having serious feelings for William since the day they first met, and it only progressed from there. He just couldn't stop himself when he slid his fingers up his spine, staring into his beautiful cobalt blue eyes. The only perspn he had ever told was Kayla. She would never tell anyone. Nobody knew except for her and it was killing him that William didn't know the entire truth. William stopped sitting with them at lunch, the girls taking turns eating with him every day. He hadn't done so much as say hi to him since it happened. He didn't know how William felt about it. He looked somewhat relaxed when they were looking at each other. Almost like he enjoyed it maybe. But, after when the bell rang, he didn't say a word. He just took off and left. It hurt more than anything, but he didn't have high hopes. Everyone in this school was a straight white guy, he knew that probably included William, no matter how much he wanted it not to. 

But, he still found the energy to get out of bed in the morning today. Every day had been a blur since it happened. 

He was sitting in Spanish class. They weren't doing anything. They never did shit in that class. He was eyeing Will from two seats away, he tried to keep his eyes on his face, but every once and a while they couldn't help but melt down to somewhere else. He broke his stare shaking his head. He couldn't stare a little boy's ding-dong. He wasn't that perverted. 

He looked up suddenly at the sound of a light cough. It was Will. He was holding out a folded up piece of paper under his desk. Jack stood up to take it.

He was by his desk. Next to him, breathing in his scent. 

"This is so fucking wierd. I'm literally indirectly sniffing him. Just take the letter and go" he thought. And so that's exactly what he did.

He didn't know what it was about. He decided to put it into his pocket and read it later. He sat back down and inhaled a deep breath. It was probably about what happened in the hallway. He wasn't ready for this. He didn't know what he would say.

Before he could think, the bell rang and they were finally able to go to lunch. He would read it there. 

He decided that he wasn't up for lunch today. He would spend it in the bathroom, as he did from time to time. He wanted to be alone to read this. He hurried off, avoiding any human contact. 

He got into a stall and put his legs up so no one would know he was there. He readied himself and slowly pulled out the letter in his pocket.

William's POV

He sat down at the table for lunch. Jack wasn't there, so it was just him, Kayla, and Alexa. William was suddenly very worried about what Jack's reaction to the letter. He would probably keep avoiding him, and they'd never talk again.

"Did you give it to him?" Kayla asked when she sat down.

"Yeah" William sighed, still thinking of the outcome.

"What did he say?" She asked again.

"I don't think he read it yet. He didn't say anything" he answered.

Kayla nodded her head. Will still thought she felt bad about telling him, but he didn't want to ask or upset her further. 

"Will. Help" Alexa begged, handing him a package of fruit snacks.

Will laughed and easily slipped open the package.

"How did you-" she said as if she were truly amazed.

"Lexi, see that line? It says open here" he said, pointing at the line.

"Wow. I feel dumb" she said, taking them out of his hands.

"You're not dumb. You're the smartest out of all of us" Kayla stated.

"Wooooow" Will said shaking his head.

"Hey, you just now got smart, she's been the smartest kid in the class since we were five. No offense" Kayla replied, defending herself.

"Yeah, ok" Will said, crossing his arms, pretending to be angry.

Will suddenly snapped out of the mood and drew his attention to the ground, thinking of Jack.

Kayla must've noticed when she said: "You okay, Will?" 

"Not really. There's just a lot going on right now... But, I'd rather not think about it, ok" he explained.

"Is it about your dad?" Alexa said, sort of leaning into him.

"Yeah, it's about him, and Jack and just... everything" he said, leaning in too. It was crazy how fast emotions could change with just a single thought.

"It'll be fine. Jack will live, and your dad is not going to prison. Trust me" Kayla said with a slap to his back.

"You don't know that" he sighed.

"You're right. I don't. But, everything plays out in the end. You just have to be willing to wait for it" She said as the bell rang for the next period.

He nodded before receiving a quick side hug from Alexa. They always knew how to fix things. Even if everything was totally shattered, they always seemed to make everything okay again. Jack would've done the same. He really missed that.

"Gooooood afternoon" His science teacher said as they walked into the room

William greeted with a small wave as everyone took their seats.

"So, we're not doing much today since we only have three classes left. You guys can study, or do something else, talk, or anything. Or I could play a video or something" 

They hadn't done anything in this class for a week. William, unlike in any other class was sort of disappointed about that. He enjoyed science and always wanted to learn.

He walked over to Alexa desk and gestured for them to sit in the floor. She followed and they sat there for a while.

"I'm tired" Alexa said through a yawn, laying her head on his shoulder.

Will sighed. "I haven't slept in four days" 

"How?" Alexa asked.

"I can't. I tried" he said honestly.

"You need to sleep. You're gonna pass out or something, Will" Alexa protested. 

"I know, I know. I can't, though. I'm just worried about a lot. I'm not sleeping until my dad comes back home" he said, pondering the thought that he wouldn't come home.

Alexa seemed to know exactly what he was thinking when she said: "He's coming home, William. Just sleep" 

"I. Can't. I tried, it's not happening. Besides, I'm not even tired. Trust me" he debated.

"Fine. But as soon as your dad gets home, promise me you'll sleep?" She asked, small and defenseless.

"Okay. Don't worry. It's not a problem, Lex" he said, leaning into her more.

She nodded and they continued on with conversations and mischief. She was able to take his mind off of things for the time being. She was great like that. He really loved her. The weird thing was that he didn't know how. He didn't know how to love anyone, he didn't know if he loved her like that. He didn't know much of anything about his feelings anymore. He didn't think about them much anymore. He never knew how to feel.

On the bus ride home he thought about how he felt a lot. He didn't love anyone like that yet. He loved his friends, he loved his family, but no one had touched his life like that before. Of course, he had had a couple little third grade crushed and shit like that, but none of that was real. Not as real as he wanted to be. He needed something to be real for once. Not something that was just going to vanish in front of his eyes. Everyone left him at some point. It almost seemed inevitable. Obviously, he wasn't old enough to date anyone yet, but he knew that when the time came, he needed to find someone who cared about him, who would never leave, and who he loved and who loved him. That's all he really knew, and he was okay with that.

Before his long, processed thoughts could draw a conclusion, the bus had stopped and William walked off the stairs into his apartment complex.

Oliver's POV

>>>—->>—->

He was sitting in the court room. The cuffs were still on, they didn't bother to remove them.

His very own D.A had betrayed him, working against them with Samanda Watson. The mayoral office certainly had a great track record when it came to hiring D.A's. It didn't look too good all things considered. Oliver took his seat next to Ms.Loring and totally zoned himself out. 

Oliver's eyes perked up when he heard his D.A. say: "We have definitive proof that the defendant is the Green Arrow"

Of course you do. Because why would anything go right anymore? Oliver tried to keep his image, sitting up straight and looking proud and confident. And of course a little intoxicating smile to jury every once and while. It kept him appearing confident.

"Then let's see it" his lawyer said.

"Sorry Ms. Loring, but we're not skipping over steps here" the judge stopped and sighed "lucky for you I am going to release the defendant on bail"

Oliver's heart began to race at that.

"Your honor, the defendant is a criminal" he bit back.

"That could be true, but more importantly, he is the mayor and so parent of a minor. Something tells me he's not going anywhere. Particularly not without a 500 dollar bail and a 5,000 dollar bond" the judge said before pounding the gavel.

Oliver stood up, turning to Ms.Loring.

"We are going to ask for an accelerated docket and an early trial date" she said firmly.

Oliver quickly rushed over to where Felicity was waiting. He was so happy to see her.

"Felicity, please tell William not to worry, I'll be back as soon as I can be" he begged of her.

"You tell him yourself when you get home" she said.

Oliver scoffed.

"Do you have half 1,000,000 dollars laying around?" He asked almost sarcastically.

"Actually, I do" when said.

"What?" Oliver shook his head in confusion.

"Curtis and I's start up investment came through yesterday" she said hopefully.

"No. I can't let you do that"

That was Felicity and Curtis's money. He couldn't have them go bankrupt over him.

"I can't let you not let me" Felicity looked at him with her I'm doing this and you sure as hell can't stop me face. Oliver knew there was no fighting at this point. At least he should be grateful.

Oliver sighed. "Okay" he nodded.

William's POV

William was getting worried. It was still a little early so Raisa wouldn't be there for another twenty minutes at least. But, his dad wasn't there. Felicity wasn't there. He hadn't been waiting for that long, but he wanted more than anything for the two of them to walk through the door. 

He didn't think he would ever feel this way before, but he felt like he really needed to tell his dad about the whole deal with Jack. It was over now, there was only two more days left of school, so he should know now. When William thought about it, there wasn't much Oliver didn't know. But this was a pretty big thing he was missing. William's stomach turned thinking about it. He felt awful about it suddenly. 

As if on cue, he heard the door start to rustle with the sound of a key turning the lock. William knew his dad had a thing for entry lines, but coming in in entry thoughts, that was a whole knew level of bad ass.

"Look who I brought" Felicity said as she walked in the door, raising Oliver's hand up with her own.

"Dad" William said as he stood up to hug his dad.

"Hey, buddy" he said into his ear.

"How are you out?" William aksed, pulling away from the hug.

He noticed Oliver playfully glare at Felicity.

"Felicity paid 5,500 dollars that she just happened to have" Oliver said, still looking at her.

"Well, it wasn't really like that. I had a start up investment. Well, we did, as in me and Curtis. So I didn't really have the money, we did" Felicity said, in defense.

William quickly remembered what he was thinking before. He had to tell him now.

"Dad. Can you come to my room. I have to tell you something" he said, grabbing his arm.

"Yes." his dad said with zero hesitation as if he had been waiting for that moment. "Why don't you go in there now, I'll be there soon, alright?" 

William nodded, walking away with sounds of Oliver and Felicity talking echoing behind him.

William sat at the edge of his bed, waiting. He almost felt bad about telling him this. Like he was betraying Jack in a way. But I'm a way he was the one betrayed by him, he couldn't just let this go.

Soon, his father stepped in, wiping his suit down.

"Hey" William said, feeling a little nervous.

Oliver joined him on the edge of the bed, putting an arm around his shoulders.

"What's up, kiddo?" He asked gently.

William inhaled. He didn't know where to start. He pulled out his phone to show the screen shot of the letter he took for Kayla. This way he wouldn't have to talk about it.

He handed his phone to his father and he began to read it, the concern rising in his face with every passing second.

William tensed, not knowing how he'd react.

Finally after what seemed like a long, painful eternity, he was done reading the letter.

"Buddy, this is you right? I-I mean, what happened?" he said, so worried.

"You tell me. I mean, after you read that what do you think happened?" he asked, not really wanting to fully explain it.

Oliver swung his arm back around his son's shoulders, pulling him in closer and tighter this time. William leaned his head into his father's shoulder, listening to each word closely.

"Well, William, I-... So, what I think happened is... someone touched you, a friend, it looks like. And he maybe looked at you. And now I think you're realizing what everything really meant" he said. William was surprised at how right he was. He was glad he didn't have to tell him all that.

William nodded at him sadly.

"Okay, William. Now fill in the blanks for me?" He asked.

"I was upset one day and... the guy? Jack? He brought me to the hallway and hugged me. So I just cried there for a while and then that's when he looked at me and... it happened" 

"Okay. I just want you to know that I am so incredibly proud of you. You did the right thing. So, you handled it?" He asked, tugging him in close.

William nodded.

"William, I think this certainly brings up a lot" he mentioned. "You're right. You can't just let people touch you. You were smart about that like I knew you would be, like I know you are. Have you talked to him at all?" He asked.

"No. I couldn't, so my friend told me to write this" he said with a slight gesture towards the phone.

"William, I think you need to. There's only two more days left. It won't hurt, just try Okay?" He suggested. William hated the idea. He by no means wanted to speak to Jack again. He knew it was inevitable, though. He would have to at some point.

William inhaled sharply. "Okay" He said nodding.

"I think we might need to talk about something else, then" he said.

William braced himself for the worst. He already knew how sex works. Please not that talk. They get sex Ed in school anyway.

"What?" William said in an awkward sort of scared way.

"Well... you know" he started.

"No Dad. I really don't know" he explained. He already hated this.

"Well, here. Let's try this," he started. William was still a little nervous. "This friend of yours, do you love him?" 

William relaxed back into his dad's shoulder.

"Yes. I mean... no. Well, not like that, no" he said in all truth.

"Okay. But he loves you. Like that?" 

"Yeah. I guess so" William stated. For a minute his dad's eyes were laced with pure rage. And even still in his voice, there was a slight hint of it.

"What you should tell him tomorrow is that it's too soon. It's too soon for all that" Oliver said, shaking his head.

"Okay. I will. But, I feel like you're getting at something bigger here" he said, the anticipation building.

"I am, I am" he said.

This was awkward. He already had one talk. He didn't need the are you gay talk on top of that. He didn't even know. If he didn't know then he was no where near ready for anyone else to know. He wanted to scream. He needed to. All this was stuck inside him for so long. 

"Dad. Not yet. Listen, I'm just gonna jump right to it, I don't want the gay talk right now" he said a little too quickly.

His dad threw his hands up in surrender.

"Okay, then. But, I don't really think that's your decision" Oliver said with a smirk.

"No" William complained, shaking his head.

And so they talked about it. They talked about how William was free to love whoever he wanted to, or if he didn't need to love anyone in that way. It was awkward, but William had to admit that it was much needed. 

"But, I need you know that whoever you are and whatever and whoever you prefer, I will always love you"Oliver finished, pulling him in close, rubbing his back up and down gently.

William realized that tat was really the first time either if them had said it to the other. 

"I love you, too, Dad" he said, with his voice soft and muffled against his dad's chest.

Oliver pulled away and looked at him.

"I love you" he whispered again, pulling him in again.

"Okay, Dad. I love you" He said again, too, trying to squirm out of his father's arms. He was strong though, he wouldn't be able to get away this time.

Oliver kissed the top of William's head and stood up, finally letting go of him.

Oliver sighed. "As you were, child" he said jokingly, walking out of the room.

William laughed and burried himself under the blankets. And for the first time in so long, he really believed that he was entirely happy.

He didn't need to know how he felt about anyone yet. He didn't need to care yet, and he didn't. He knew who he loved, and that's all that mattered in that moment, that's all that would matter for a while now, and he was so okay with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, guys! I hope you all enjoyed. So my uploading might get a little later now, instead of every day with breaks in between. I’m planning to upload at least once a week now. The next chapter will finally bring Thea in to the story, so it’s a bit of a fun one. I’ll update Friday hopefully.  
> Friday: One Last Time


	14. One Last Time

It was the last day before summer. Of course, that by no means meant that Oliver would be free from work, but he was looking forward to spending more time with his family. Things had been so simple and normal the past few days. Drama has been slowly boiling down after Cayden James, and everything seemed so domestic. He woke up in the mornings, went to work and came home at a somewhat reasonable hour. That's what normal people do, right?

"Good morning" Oliver said, flipping an egg out of the frying pan as William stepped out of his bedroom.

"Hey" William said before a yawn.

"Happy last day. Excited?" Oliver tried to start the small talk.

"I guess" William said shrugging simply as he pulled out a seat to the breakfast bar.

"Hey, after school today, let's go see your aunt Thea. I'll go to the store today and get some flowers. Sound good?" Oliver offered.

"Yeah. But, can we wait until after school to get the flowers? I want to pick them out, too" William asked.

"Yeah, Of course. Hey, listen, she's still in the coma. I don't want you to get scared or anything, ok?" Oliver made sure.

"It's okay. I'm not scared. She's just... asleep" William reassured him.

Oliver sighed. "Ok. Thanks, buddy" 

William perked up,realizing something."Oh! It's late I have to go. Bye, Dad!" 

"Oh! Bye! I love-" Before Oliver knew it, he was out the door, his plate left untouched "...you" Oliver finished for himself.

William's POV 

He stepped off of the bus with extra pep today. When he approached the spot they normally met up, he was surprised to see Jack there again. He braced himself for the awkwardness that was yet to come.

When he got there, the girls just found a reason to leave. And there they were. Alone. Just the two of them, together. 

"I'm sorry" Jack whispered, looking at the ground. 

William didn't know what to say. Sorry didn't fix anything, but it wasn't his fault. He couldn't control it. He needed to hear what he wanted to.

"It's okay, Jack. It's over now. You don't have to worry about it anymore. We can move on" William said just what Jack needed to hear.

"I can't" Jack whispered. "I can't move on from you. I'm so sorry. I can't let this go. If that's the only way this is going to work for you, then I'm sorry. I have to walk away from all this" 

"No. That's not how it has to be. We can just pretend it didn't happen. I love you. I don't want you go. Please?" William was begging him.

"Will. I love you, too. You know how. If you loved me you'd let me go, right? It's not a big deal. Your life is bigger than one person, Will. You'll live, you'll make new friends and meet new people and I don't have to be a part of that" Jack debated.

"I want you to be" Will was almost embarrassed to say.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I hurt you. You don't deserve that, it's too early for any of that. I'm afraid I'll hurt you more if I stay, and I want you to have so much more" Jack said, shuffling his feet awkwardly.

William inhaled deeply. "Ok. Alright. Leave, and you'll have nothing. You can't just walk away. You've known Alexa and Kayla since kindergarten. Please, Jack. What's it going to take?" 

"I'm sorry, but it's going to take you, Will. And I'm not getting that" Jack said sharply, walking away into the school.

William felt hot tears burn in the middle of his eyes. He couldn't just leave. That's not how it works. There will be a next year, and they'll see each other around. You can't just leave. William wished he could give Jack what he wanted, but he couldn't. He would never be able to. At the end of the day, it was his choice. If he wanted to leave, then he was right to leave. He would rather him be happy than disappointed.

Will sighed as the bell rang. He lugged himself inside the building for first period.

"Hello! Sadly, this will be our last class together this year, but I am so excited to wish you all the best of luck next year! I think we had an awesome year, guys. So today let's just relax a little bit, take a break from the math and focus more on having a good end of the year!" Ms. Cook said waaay too enthusiastically. William was trying to have a good day, he was trying not to think about Jack right now. 

William counted the hours until lunch was finally there. Two more hours and it would be. He just had to tough out Spanish and history.

He passed Jack in the hallway. William wanted to talk. He tried to grab hold of his arm as they passed.

"I can't talk to you. I have class. So do you." Jack said firmly, ripping his arm out of William's grasp.

William didn't keep walking. He waited until Jack walked away out of sight. He lost him. He didn't leave. William drove him away. He would always drive people away. Maybe this time was just a warning.

William tucked his head down as soon as Jack melted out of sight. He was the only one left in the hallway. He would be late, but he didn't care. It was the last day, what were they to do about it.

"Here he is. Afternoon, Clayton" his history teacher greeted him with someone pep and energy today. 

Mr. Fry bared a striking resemblance to Toby from 'The Office'. He was boring, and was often excluded from the other history teachers, he was such a buzz kill too. Nobody really liked him and he just sort of played through the rules. It was scary. He had Toby written all over him, not just in the face, but in his entire personality. He even smelled like moth balls and musty air.

"Good morning, class. Today we're just going to be playing a little historical fun game. Everybody find a partner and let's have some last-day- fun" he said, with an awkward, trying to be happy emotion to his voice.

William found himself being paired with this guy named Cohen. He sat in the back of the class and William barely knew who he was. All he knew was that he had heard him curse under his breath multiple times before, so he didn't know what to think about that. They shifted awkwardly and sat in the back of the room, pretty out of sight.

"Hey. Were you paying attention at all? because I don't know what to do" Cohen said, awkwardly playing with his gelled back blonde hair. 

"Kind of. I think we're supposed to do something with cards and historical figures... I think" William answered.

"Oh... what cards?" He asked again, brushing a lock of yellow hair from his face.

"Umm... I think he forgot our group" William said with sort of a fake, nervous chuckle.

"We're not actually going to ask him for some are we?" Cohen looked a bit disgusted.

"I wasn't planning on it. If doesn't stop stapling papers anytime soon, he won't notice" 

"What is he even stapling? It's the last day" Cohen had the same expression on his face. Apparently he wasn't the only one who felt that way about Mr. Fry.

"Probably his tindr application" William joked, hoping that would blow over well with him.

"If he knows what that is" Cohen offered a real, genuine smile.

William laughed just as genuinely at that.

"I'm sorry. I know it's the last day, and we've been in the same class the entire year. But, I don't listen much, or really pay attention to any detail, but I totally forgot what your name is. Would you tell me again?" Cohen looked extra nervous at that.

William chuckled. "It's William, well... You can call me Will if you want. I'm surprised you don't know my name. People think my dad's the Green Arrow, I would've thought you've heard my name around here about 1,000,000 times. It is just the greatest" William explained.

"Oh. You're that Will" William didn't know what to say to that. His emotions were sort of hard to read. "You're right, I've heard that. Your dad's the mayor right? I'm sorry, that must suck"

"Yeah. It does. And, it's okay, you don't need to apologize, you didn't do anything. But, you know, he is my dad" William shrugged.

"Oh, sorry. I mean-" Cohen apologized again. Apologizing for apologizing. Adorable.

Will laughed. "It's fine. Really"

"You know, I really want to say it" Cohen said, biting his lip, staring at the ground.

Will sighed with a smile. "Go ahead then"

"I'm sorry. I mean, really. I am so awkward" he was still looking at the floor, shaking his head.

"Aren't we all? It's middle school" William reasoned.

"I don't know why I didn't talk to you before, you're really nice. Do you want my number? we can still talk this summer" Cohen offered so sweetly.

"Sure! I mean, um... yes" William said a little too quickly.

Before William could answer that, he was interrupted with a sigh. "Okay... there" he said taking a sticky-note from this desk and writing it "Dang it, I'm sorry. I- really I am so weird"

"It's alright, Cohen. I think it's kind of cute" the words just slipped from his tounge. He bagan to blush as Cohen smiled at the ground.

And just like that, as if on cue, the bell went off. Just like in the movies. Perfect.

William stood up, but not like he was rushing off this time. It was like it was normal. He looked back at Cohen when he was walking away. He was still there, he was smiling still.

William sighed in happiness. Next period would've be an utter struggle, Jack would be there, but, he just needed to think of history. Just how great was that?

"Good morning, take your seats. Hurry, now, we don't have long. Since today is the last we'll just be looking over all our notes from this year. I want you to make corrections and add new ones too. Go ahead and het started" the bony Mrs. William's stated.

William couldn't help but look to Jack. He was zoned out, focused in his notes. He never didn't that. Any other day, he would be staring at the clock, waiting for lunch. He would also occasionally look over to Will and laugh when something funny happened that only they noticed. He really missed that. 

William tried to do the same, but he couldn't focus. No one would notice if he just doodled around a bit. Everyone else was probably doing it, no doubt.

By the end of class, he had drawn a cactus, a snowman, a dog, and an apple tree. He also drew something else, which will never be spoken of, and a flash symbol.

William couldn't help himself. He walked over to Jack at the end of clas to go talk to him.

"Jack! Hey. Can you sit with us at lunch today? It's the last day, I really want you there. Please?" William begged before he could walk away.

"William... you know I can't say no when you do that thing" Jack said, wanting to smile, but was still clearly upset.

"What thing?" William was curious to know.

"You always beg people like that, no one can say no"

"That's exactly why I do it. So, will you? Please?" Will pleaded once more.

"Okay. But, I don't want it to be awkward, let's just try to make it normal agian, like you said. I don't want to ruin the last day for you guys" Jack said, awkwardly cutting his eyes to the side.

"Well, we want you there, so please" He asked again.

Jack nodded and he rushed off ahead of him to the cafeteria.

William naturally met Kayla at her locker. She was struggling to put in the code the right way.

"It's the last day of school, you'd think I'd have this down by now" Kayla said, very frustratedly slamming a hand on the locker.

"20-14-17, right?" he asked, stepping into help.

Kayla stepped back and nodded.

William easily cracked open the locker took out Kayla's lunch box.

"I'm so lucky" Kayla teased with a slap to his shoulder.

"That hurts more than it should have" Will said, rubbing his shoulder.

Kayla shook her head and sighed. "Baby" she joked before poking his cheek.

"I hope it's okay, I asked Jack if he would sit with us, you know, since it's the last day. I just wanted everything to be normal again today" he made sure.

"I guess it's okay. I just hope it doesn't make everything awkward" Kayla said, nervously grabbing her arm across her body.

"Yeah, me too. He said he didn't want it to be awkward. I think we'll just try to make it normal. If that's possible anymore. I talked to him. He doesn't want to hang out with us anymore. He said he would just "leave". I'm sorry, I tried to tell him to forget anything happened and just let it go. He sad he can't do it anymore, he won't be able to get over it ever" William told her sadly.

Kayla sighed and nodded her head, knowingly. "I get it. It happens you know" 

"I guess so" William sighed.

When they reached the lunch table they all sat in the normal seats again. Jack did the same. It was refreshing to be back how it was again.

William was surprised that it wasn't in the least bit awkward. There were dull moments but all around it was pretty great. They talked about the normal things. Like what all was happening at home or outside of school, and gossiped about all the people at school that were giving them shit. It was really great to see it all playing out in front of him just as it normally did. William didn't know if this meant that Jack would still hang out with them, but he was really hoping. 

"Thanks for coming today. We missed this" William said nodding at the group.

"Yeah. I'm glad I did, I missed it too" Jack agreed.

"Since no one else wanted to ask... Are you still going to hang out with us at all? I mean, you can't just forget about all this" Kayla said shrugging.

"I don't know, guys. I'm really sorry. Everyone knows what happened. It's awkward, and that sucks, I wish it wasn't like that. And... I am a fucking duchebag, but I just really wanted everything to be okay again, even just for a day" He answered.

"Every day can be like this. I think the only person that's having a problem with it is you. We're all willing to accept what happened and move on. One event isn't going to change this" Alexa tried.

"It's changed everything, guys! That was the moment that everything was so clear to me... about everything, my entire life, feeling like something was wrong with me and now I know. You don't think that's big?! Have you all even thought about what this means for me? This is everything for me. I come home and my parents are screaming, my brothers are getting high in the basement and I'm just there... alone. So I've had time to think, and I know crap now! You guys, this is so much more than you're making it out to be. My life was shit until that moment in the hallway and then it's like everything opened up for me. So if I keep doing this awkward dance back and fourth with all of you, I'll never be able to move on with my life and be who I want to be. And this friendship with you guys has been all I've ever had, and I don't want to leave. But, if I don't then I will never get what I want. I love you all but I need a break. Maybe not forever, but a break... Okay?" He said, finally calming down.

The group was stunned. They had never really thought about it that way before. It was a lot to process. He never said anything about his family, William was beginning to understand why. After that he couldn't leave, they needed to talk about it. He didn't know what to say. He followed everyone's movement and nodded his head.

Jack picked up his things and left right before the bell began to ring.

"Wow" Alexa whispered in disbelief. "What do we do now?" She finished 

"I think we have to go to science now. We can forget about it today and then worry tomorrow... I don't know? Is that right?" Will said.

"I'm going to go talk to the guidence counselor for him, I think. You guys should just go" Kayla said, picking up her tray and walking out.

William sighed and hurried off to science without a second thought.

He should've been thinking about Jack. But, he couldn't. It was selfish, but he didn't care too much about what was happening with him right now. All he wanted was to go home and get summer started, he couldn't wait to talk to Cohen.

Mr. Kevin was blabbing about science and things , things that William would normally love, but he wasn't listening. He shouldn't have been having a good day, all things considered this should've been an awful day. But, even so, he was having a really great day, he was happy for once. He was happy with how he'd handled situations, and how he'd been talking to people, and between school and home, there wasn't that huge line drawn anymore. There wasn't much of a difference. He didn't have to come home and be someone that he wasn't, he didn't have to do that at school either. He wasn't focused on the one day, but he was focused more on the out look of all of them. That was something that he was pretty proud of.

"Will? Are you alright, you've been out of it for a while?" Alexa said when they were waiting for the bus.

Will sighed. "Did you know I have an aunt?" He blabbered.

"No?" Alexa was confused.

"I'm going to see her today" William sounded happy.

"Cool. Where does she live?" Kayla asked.

"She's in the hospital. She lives in Star City" William answered.

"Oh! What happened, is she okay?"

"Not really, I guess. She's in a coma, I've never met her" William said sadly.

"Oh, that sucks. I'm sorry" Alexa apologized.

"It's okay. My dad's girl friend is working on a cure. She'll be awake soon, hopefully" William said with a slight happiness.

"Girlfriend? What's she like?" Kayla asked excitedly.

"She's awesome. She's really smart and she's even working in a company and everything. She helps me with math and stuff a lot. She's so fun, I really like her" William said, nodding along.

"Wow. Great. My stepdad's girlfriend was a pain in the ass. She smelt like old woman perfume and she wore skirts that were as short as her panties" Kayla said, disgustedly shaking her head.

"Aaaaaalrighty, then..." William said.

"Looks like the buses are here. I'll talk to you guys when I get home, Okay?" Alexa said as they all walked outside.

"Okay. Have a great summer guys, see you soon!" Will shouted, stepping into the bus.

And there it was. Summer at last. Just like that, it was over. No more having to worry about school for the next three months.

When he stepped off the bus everyone was waving and saying goodbye. Not to him, but it was still pretty fun. Everything seemed so normal. Like he didn't have crime-fighting super hero dad living in a city run by vigilantes. 

"Hey, Dad" William said, dropping his bag on the couch.

"Hey, buddy. How was your day?" Oliver asked.

"It was pretty okay. You've been getting home so early lately, what's up with that?" William has been suspicious for a while now.

"Things have been boiling down. I haven't been going to the bunker as much, my team is handling things. How things are really going behind my back: I do not know, but my guess is not as good as they present it to be... I was hoping to talk to you about that, actually... Come here. Sit down." Oliver said, patting the chair beside him at the table they had barely ever used.

"What's up?" William asked, taking his seat.

"I know how you feel about me... going into the field. And I don't feel like you should have to hide that, or deal with it. Something should be done" Oliver started. This conversation was turning out to be more awkward than he anticipated.

"I don't know what you mean... Really, it's fine. I get that it's something that you have to do. But, you're right. It gets me worried to death and... it's not my favorite thing in the world, but, I get it" William sighed.

"You know... you have been so brave, and strong, and independent the whole time that you've been here. So what I'm saying is that you don't have to be right now. William, if you want me to be here more, like I have been, but you want it long-term, I will make that happen. I'm still working out details, but I do have a plan... and I will make this work for you. So if you want me to stop being the Green Arrow... I will." Oliver stated.

William took a moment to process that. He hated that Oliver was out every night doing that. But, he didn't want him to have to give that up just for him. He didn't today want to take that away. He didn't want to be that selfish. But, it would take the weight of the world off of his shoulders. His father's team was a good one, they would be able to do this without him. He would have to stop being the Green Arrow at some point, maybe this was it for him. William would be okay with that.

William took a deep breath and nodded. He wanted him to do this.

"Okay. I will make it happen, I promise. Now, come on, let's go get those flowers" he said, standing up and slapping William's knee. That was such a 'dad' thing to do. That was disgusting, he's turning into an elderly man. Gross.

William stopped to shove his phone in his pocket before he walked out. He remembered Cohen. He really wanted to talk to a friend right now. He always did.

William sighed and got into the passenger side of the car.

"Where are we going?" William asked, fiddling with the phone in his pocket.

"Umm... I don't know. I don't really buy flowers much. I don't really go to stores much... Raisa usually does that for us. Wow. I don't think I've been grocery shopping since... Ivy Town" Oliver was in sudden denial.

"Ivy Town?" William asked.

"That's a story for another day, son" Oliver said, shaking his head, smiling.

"Okay. So where are we going to go?" Willaim aksed again.

"I think I've seen this cute little shop up by City Hall on my way to work. They have a couple things, they probably have flowers" Oliver said, looking totally clueless.

William nodded his head along.

When they got there, they were in front of a tiny shop called "Starling Market". You could see the flowers in the window. It was a little weird that it was still called Starling. Only a few small businesses were still called Starling these days.

"What colors does she like?" Will asked when they got in.

"Red. Any kind of red" Oliver replied a little too quickly.

"Oh. Okay. Does it mean anything to her? It sounds like it does"

"It means a lot. I have a lot of things to tell you when the time comes, but for now that's all you should know, Okay buddy?" Oliver's eyes were full of happiness.

William nodded. He walked over to a bouquet of beautiful red carnations and roses. William looked up happily at his father.

"Sure, buddy. They look pretty" His dad said with a smile climbing up the sides of his face.

William picked up the flowers and they checked out. 

On the way to the hospital, William sat in the back of the car. It was nice to have a large space to himself back there.

He took out his phone and texted Cohen, the number was already in his phone so he wouldn't forget.

W:Hey, it's Will

He texted nervously. William was excited when he saw that Cohen was typing back.

C: Hi

C: I didn't think you'd talk to me

William laughed a little to himself.

W: why wouldn't anyone want to talk to you?

W: I've literally only known you for two hours and I know that you're a good person to talk to

William felt a little weird about saying that.

C: you 2

C:ew I hate myself

C: I'm sorry that was so weird

C: I've never used numbers as words before I'm sorry

William laughed again.

W: It was fine. Relax and remember what I said about saying sorry?

W: it isn't hurting anyone, nobody's offended

"Who are you talking to back there?" Oliver asked a little more suspiciously than he was comfortable with.

"It's just no one. Someone I met today" William answered.

"Okay. What's this person's name?" Oliver was still smug.

"Cohen. What's the big deal?" 

Oliver seemed to relax a little bit. But, he looked like he still wanted to know more.

"Cohen. He or she?" Oliver's mood hadn't changed.

"He. Why are you making this a big deal?" William complained.

"Just wanted to know why you were laughing so much. I'm sorry. It's nothing big" Oliver said like he wasn't fully believing the words that were coming from his own mouth.

C: yeah, I know. I'm sorry

C: and I know what you'll say about that

That made William smile.

"Wrap it up, please.We're almost there, kiddo" Oliver called form the front seat.

"Okay" He said.

W: Hey. I guess it's my turn to apologize-

W: I have to go now, sorry. I'll talk to you when I get back.I'm going to the hospital to see my aunt

C: hospital???

C: I'm so sorry about your aunt hope everything's okay 

"Okay, buddy get the flowers for me please?" Oliver said as they were stepping out of the car.

William nodded and slipped the bouquet of flowers out of the seat.

"You know... They say that people in comas might be able to hear what other people are saying around them. If you want to talk to her you should. I do it all the time. She might not be awake, but you can tell that she's easy to talk to" Oliver said, nudging his arm as they stepped into the front doors of Starling General.

"Okay. I think I will" William said, looking into the flowers.

When the doctors lead them into her room she was there. She looked similar to what William had seen in the photos. She appeared to have one of those mouths that rested in a faint smile. Her aura was so pleasant and comforting.

William walked to her bedside and set the flowers on the table beside her. He could see her in red. It was definately her color, just by looking at her. She was beautiful. She hardly looked like the pictures of William's grandmother that he'd seen. She looked more like the man Oliver said was her father. 

"If you want to talk to her, I'm sure she'd love that. I'll step out if you want" Oliver asked him.

William nodded. "I'd like that"

William took a seat in the chair as Oliver slipped out of the room.

"Hi, Auntie Thea. I'm William. Ummm... Dad says that people in comas might be able to hear other people talking to them. If you can hear me, just please, if there's a way try to wake up... Dad needs you. I'd like to meet you one day" William stopped, not knowing quite what to say.

"I know you can't see them, but I hope you would like the flowers. I picked them out from a little shop here. Dad said red was your color... I think you'd be beautiful in red..." William was getting more nervous.

He didn't know if he could touch her. He felt like he should. 

William knew he had to be kidding himself, but when he looked back up he could've sworn her lips made a slight smile, telling him that it was okay. The space seemed to open up in such happiness and comfort.

William layed his hand on hers.

"We all miss you. We want you to wake up. I could really use someone right now and I've never met you, but I think you're the perfect person to talk to. You're not even awake, but it feels like you're telling me things and making me feel so much better. Dad talks about you a lot. He loves you so much. We all wish you could be with us. I wish you were awake. Dad's really trying right now, but he needs help. He tries to talk to me a lot and understand me, but he doesn't always get it. I feel like you would, though... I have so many questions for you..." William felt a rush of sudden tears flood his eyes.

"I think Dad should be coming back in soon, he really wants to see you. He missed his visit yesterday, he had to take me somewhere, I'm sorry. But, he really misses you, so I think he should see you now..." William inhaled a breath and let it melt away into relief.

"Goodbye, Auntie Thea. I'll talk to you again soon. Thank you." Willaim finished rubbing her hands softly.

William stood up to let himself out the door.

"Dad? Can you come back now?" William asked, poking his head out of the door.

Oliver drew his attention back to his son.

"Sure, buddy" Oliver said. "Did you talk to her?"

"Yeah, it was lovely, like you said. I felt like she really listened" William told his father honestly.

"Right? She's great that way. You remind me of her sometimes" Oliver offered a warm smile.

"Really? Can you tell me about her more when we get home?" 

"Of course. Do you mind if I go talk to her now? You can come in, or you can stay out here. It doesn't matter" 

"I'll stay out here, I already said goodbye to her" Willaim said.

Once his dad was inside the room, he took his phone back out of his pocket.

W: I'm back now. I guess you want me to explain why she's I'm the hospital?

C: only if you want to

W: well, she's in a coma. She has been for the past couple months. My dad's friend is working on a cure, she's really smart. I've never met her before, she's been in the coma the whole time, but I saw her for the first time today. 

C:I'm so sorry, that's horrible. Is she okay?

C: well, besides the coma thing-

W:she's okay. She's stable. We're just playing the waiting game now

C: I'm so sorry, Will I hope she wakes up soon

W: We all do. Thanks for being so easy to talk to. I wouldn't tell just anyone that

C: of course, I guess. It's really easy to talk to you too

W: thanks again. I guess I have to go now, I'll talk to you later 

C:bye!

C: ew. Forget the exclamation mark

W: okay then 

W:bye (!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed that chapter. I can’t say much about the next chapter because I honestly haven’t started writing it yet. I’m feeling a little stuck here at the moment, so if you wanna help me out, I would love your comments and suggestions, or anything you want to see in this story. Thank you so much for reading!


	15. When I First Met Her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver tells William about when he first met Felicity. Felicity is able to come over for dinner and hang out with the boys.

Oliver hadn't seen Felicity in nearly three weeks. He hadn't heard her voice in three weeks. It was Summer, that meant new beginnings, right? That's just what they needed, a chance to forget the past, clear the slate and start over. He couldn't take it anymore, he needed so badly to see her, to touch her, to hear her voice. It was time now, he waited, he waited so long, he needed her now.

Oliver didn't think twice when he got in his car and drive to Felicity's loft. He was going to get back together with her today. He would do whatever it takes to get her back, he needed her now.

Oliver ripped the key out of the ignition and rushed up to the loft. He couldn't wait another day.

When he bursted through the doors, she was there. She was there, she was so beautiful, she was perfect.

"Felicity" he breathed as soon as she answered her door.

He couldn't help himself , he wrapped her up and kissed her with everything he had in his body.

"Oliver, Oliver" Felicity moaned. "Oliver, stop!"

Oliver ripped himself away. What had he done? Was she seeing someone?

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, baby. I'm so sorry" Oliver whispered, backing away.

"I'm not." Felicity said, grabbing his chest and resuming their make-out.

Oliver was beyond himself. It was like any other time, he was so breathless. She was amazing, she took his breath away every time. She was everything and more, she was all that mattered then.

Oliver didn't hesitate about grabbing the he made of her black floaty blouse, starting to slip it away.

"Oliver, no. I can't" Felicity pulled her shirt back down and pulled him close again.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" Oliver breathed through her hair.

"I have to leave in ten minutes. I'm meeting Curtis. I would, trust me" Felicity laughed.

Oliver sighed. "I can do a hell of a lot in ten minutes" Oliver argued. It wasn't even a joke.

"No, baby. This is fine for now. I want more" Felicity said, grabbing the collar of his shirt, kissing him again.

"Where's William?" Felicity managed to say between his tounge.

"At home," Oliver paused to pull her closer "with Raisa"

"Okay," Felicity stopped for a second to breathe. "Can I come tonight?" She moved her hands up his back.

"Please, come tonight?" Oliver said back.

"Only if I'm invited and welcome" she said.

"Always" he said, lacing his fingers playfully through her hair, telling her he needed more.

"Oliver, Oliver, stop. I have to go" she said, laughing as he twisted her to face away from him, exploring his hands all across her body.

"I can't, I can't, baby, I love you" he whispered delicately.

"I love you, I love you. But I have to go. I'll see you tonight 7:00?" She finally pulled away, grabbing her purse to leave.

"6:30?" He begged, watching her fly out the door.

"6:00." She settled, shutting the door behind her.

There he was. Completely in shock of what had happened, lipstick smeared all over his face, he probably looked like an idiot. He would never be this happy again. Only she made him feel this way. 

Oliver let himself into her bathroom to go and wipe the lipstick off of his face. If William saw, he would be hysterical.

With one last glance around Felicity's geougeous loft, he decided that it was time to head out. William would be getting bored of sitting at home with Raisa all day and it was his job to keep him entertained. 

Oliver drew himself away from Felicity's loft and made his way back home.

"Dad?" William asked as he busted through the door.

"Hey, buddy" Oliver said, shutting the door behind him.

"Where have you been?" He asked, crossing his arms suspiciously.

Oliver froze.

"I-... I, um... I was at Felicity's place" he said, trying to be casual, scratching the back of his neck.

"Mm-hm" William hummed, laying back in the couch and popping a grape in his mouth.

"William, I don't want to hear it" Oliver said. 

"Yeah, no. It's all good, Dad" William said, sarcastically throwing his hands up in defense.

"William-" Oliver sighed.

"What? I didn't say aaaaanything " William said.

"William, stop this, son." Oliver said, wiping his hand across his forehead.

William scoffed.

"Dad! Look in the mirror, turn your head to the right" William gasped, laughing.

Oliver sighed and did what he was asked.

Sure enough, he had missed a spot. A smudge of dark purple lipstick was still blobbed on his face. He didn't know if he'd be able to leave the bathroom again. William would be over the moon about this.

Oliver splashed the water against the lipstick and proceeded down the hall to his bedroom. He heard William's snickers the whole way there.

William's POV 

William couldn't believe that Oliver saw Felicity. He said he just needed to take care of some work things. If that's what Oliver does at work, William would want that job when he grows up.

William loved Felicity. Whenever she came over to tutor him, he could just sense the tension between her and Oliver. He knew that they had a history that he didn't know about. He couldn't help but want to know more. Oliver said that it was very long and complicated. Obviously, he knew that he'd went over and kissed her today, so it could it be that complicated anymore. 

"Dad?" William said, peeking into Oliver's room.

He sighed. "Yeah, buddy?" 

"You good?" He teased.

"William, I'm fine. What do you need, son?" He said through the door.

"Can I come in?" William asked.

"Sure"

William tiptoed through the doorway, attempting not to break a smile.

"You okay, buddy?" Oliver asked.

"I'm okay. Sorry" William said, sitting next to Oliver on the edge of the bed.

"It's okay, buddy. You know I'll be doing the same with you whenever you get a girlfriend-" Oliver paused. "Or a um... boyfriend or... something-... else?" He said, itching the back of his neck.

"Yeah, Okay" William said, getting up off the bed to escape the awkwardness.

"Wait." Oliver called.

William turned back around."Yeah?"

"Cm'ere" He said, waving his hand back over to the bed.

William sighed and reluctantly sat back down.

"You have questions, don't you?" Oliver asked knowingly.

"I have a lot. About what though?" William asked.

"Felicity" Oliver sighed, preparing himself for what would come next.

"Yeah, I do. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to" William's said, trying not to laugh.

"No, I want to. I think you should know some things about us. I'm planning on seeing her a lot more, and I think that she should be a part of your life. We both would be better off that way, with her. So before that happens, I think you deserve to know more about her" Oliver said.

"Okay." William said, nodding. "Is she going to be here a lot?"

"I think so, buddy." Oliver said. "God, I hope so" he whispered.

"I hope so, too. You guys won't be all gross, will you?" William aksed cringing.

Oliver laughed. "No, buddy. Not around you, Okay?"

"Okay. You said that you guys had a complicated history, right?"

Oliver nodded.

"Can you tell me more?" He asked.

"Well, like I said... it's very complicated. Umm... When I met Felicity, she was working in the IT department of Queen Consolidated. I'll have to tell you about that particular company a little later. I, uh, I brought her a bullet-riddled laptop and asked if she could fix it. I'll let Felicity tell you more about that later. Anyways, One day I showed up in her car, and well... I was um, bleeding... a lot. So she drove me to the foundary. That was like my bunker at the time. She helped Mr.Diggle keep me alive, and she helped us look for her boss. After that she's decided to stay and help us protect the city, and about five years later she still is. William, I love Felicity. I have for almost six years. And I want her to be a part of your life, we both do" Oliver explained.

"Wow. You really love her, don't you?" William said.

"I love her so much" Oliver said truthfully.

"That's great, Dad. It really is" William knew that his dad's life was full of darkness and pain. Whenever he was around Felicity all that darkness seemed to melt away. William was so glad that there could be someone like that in their lives. 

"Thank you, buddy. She's coming over tonight, Okay?" Oliver said.

"Great!" Will said happily.

"I'm happy you're excited. Now go take a shower and put some real clothes on. And maybe clean your room, please? It smells like garbage in there, I hate it" Oliver said, judging his red plaid Christmas pajama pants.

"I'll try not to be offended by that" William said getting up off the bed and into his room.

Felicity's POV

It was time. She was so ready to be with Oliver again, to be a part of his life. She knew that also cam with William. The two of them were a packaged deal. She was okay with that, William was a good kid, and she had been told many times tat William needed someone like her in his life. Maybe Felicity needed someone like him in her life too. Maybe all three of them needed each other. 

It was 4:55. She had about 35 minutes to get ready and another thirty to get to Oliver's place. She would be meeting them for dinner. She really did not want to stay over night. She did not want Oliver to talk her into that. But somehow, she knew that he would. That's why she folded up her slip and tucked it into her purse. Just in case.

When Felicity was ready, she had dressed herself in what she knew was Oliver's favorite blue dress. It was dark and wavy and showed just enough of her. She looked absolutely stunning, yet it was very simple. She painted her lips with her favorite dark red color and left her hair down to frame her face nicely. She looked perfect.

She really was mean. She was going to wear her boyfriend's favorite dress and get all dolled up for him to look at when they can't even have sex? But then again, she was doing it just right. She had to make him want it. 

There was no way she would allow herself to fuck Oliver tonight. No way. His kid is there, he could hear from his bedroom. That would just be traumatizing.

Slipping on her black sandals, she was out the door and incredibly excited to see Oliver. 

William's POV 

William turned his head when he heard his dad stepping out of the bathroom.

"You, um... shaved. And, uh... did your hair differently," William stopped himself when he received a look telling him to do so. "You look nice" 

"Thank you" Oliver said quietly with one sharp nod.

William was dying inside. It was hilarious. In about half an hour, he would be sitting with the two of them at the table. He wasn't prepared for the awkwardness, but at the same time, he couldn't wait.

William took his phone out of his pocket and texted Kayla.

W: my dad just went and made out with Felicity 

W: there was the lipstick on his face and everything

K: lmao

K: no way I'm dying rn. Did you see???

William was absolutely disgusted.

W: No way!!! I didn't see it he went to her house. That's disgusting

K: it's beautiful.

W: you're repulsive. I have to go

William slid his phone away, shaking his head. Felicity would be here in a matter of hours, and now when he saw her, all he would see was that image that Kayla gave him.

William hurried to shower and cleaned his room, throwing on a casual T-shirt and jeans. Felicity didn't care what he looked like, it was fine. 

Once everything was done, and he had helped Oliver make dinner, it was already 5:50'ish and Felicity would be there at 6:00. 

With a knock at the door, dinner had started. It was going as good as anyone would've expected. The flirty looks, the awkward small talk. It was somewhat enjoyable. There was steak, so what's not to love?

"So, Will? How's school going?" Felicity asked, clutching her glass of wine.

"It's good. The last day was actually about a week ago" William said.

"Wow. Already? It's summer? Kind of loses its meaning when you're not in school" Felicity said, cutting into her steak.

William sensed Felicity's occasional stare into his dad's eyes. It was getting very awkward for him.

Once the dinner had simmered down, it was already pretty late. Felicity had already stayed a few more hours than necessary, so Will wouldn't be too surprised if she didn't go home tonight. Just like last time. 

William lead himself into his room to avoid the awkwardness of being alone in a room with the most horny couple on the planet. It was painful to watch the two of them dance around each other, pretending like everything was normal. He couldn't bare it anymore. Not for another minute.

William took the liberty of getting out his phone and telling someone about this.

W: Felicity's here

W: I'm dying it's painful

William laughed as he typed in words to send to Alexa.

A: It's beautiful don't mock it

W: Dammit that's exactly what Kay said

W:It's not beautiful it's my dad

A: So? Still a human being

W: He's my daaaaaaaad. How would you feel if it was your dad???

William plopped down in his bed and ran a hand through his hair.

A: yeah I think I see your point

W: hahahaahhahaha i win

A: yeah okay

A: try not to die over there I gotta go eat

W: eat?

W: It's almost 9:00?????

A: chill ur shit rich boy not everyone gets hungry at 3:30

William laughed to himself.

W:


	16. Moving Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William is back for another year of school.

It was already October, William had been in school for a full month now. Summer was over, and he had savored every second of it, but now it was over. No more of it for months, eternities to wait until freedom. But for now it was okay, he would make it through whether he enjoyed it or not.

Summer had flown by in a flash. He had visited his grandparents in Central City, and he had lots of time to hang out with friends and family. Thea, after all this time had finally awoken from her coma. Her awakening was very beautiful and peaceful. They were all glad that after all this time she was awake again. William was so happy to finally meet his aunt. The summer had been very happy and filled with tons of joy. That was something that all of them had needed desperately in their lives. Felicity was moved in with William and Oliver finally, after flip flopping between houses for so long. And after waiting what seemed like generations, Oliver had finally married the woman just like that. Oliver had called William when they were in Central City the night before he proposed. The next day, they were already unexpectedly married. It seemed like everything was just falling right into place and he was happy. Happier than he'd been in a long, long time.

Another thing to be happy and absolutely overjoyed about was it being October. He had always enjoyed Halloween and other October things with his mom when he was little. This year would be the first without her. 

William stirred awake at the sound of his father's heavy fist pounding on his bedroom door.

"Get up you're late!" Oliver called from the other side of the door.

William rushed out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Brushing his teeth in roughly five swipes he darted out to the living room where Oliver and Felicity were waiting.

"Bus comes in ten minutes, buddy" Oliver said glancing at the clock.

"I know that, Dad" William huffed as he hurriedly shoved his things in the backpack.

"Calm down, Will. I can take you" Felicity said delightfully as she sat up from the couch.

"Felicity, you don't have to-" Oliver was cut off by his wife once again.

"Yes, I do. There's no way he's making that bus and there's no way he's staying home, Oliver. Just this once won't hurt anyone" Felicity said.

"Thanks Felicity" William smiled at his step-mother.

"'Course. No go put on a different shirt. I saw you wear that two days ago" Felicity added knowingly.

William sighed. "Fine"

Once William had changed and eaten, he and Felicity left the apartment.

"Bye, Dad!" William called, opening the door.

"Bye buddy, have a good day. I love you" Oliver waved.

When they got into the car and headed to the school, William had a few things to ask.

"Hey, Felicity?" William said nervously.

"Yeah?" She said, not looking down from the windshield.

"So, my friend asked me if I could hang out with him and some of his friends this weekend and Dad doesn't really know them that well. Can you talk to him tonight?"

William never asked Felicity permission for things, he brought most things to Oliver so he and Felicity could talk about it together. He definitely didn't see her as a maternal figure yet, but they would certainly get there.

Felicity wasn't used to making the decisions about what William could and couldn't do. She's was honored that William asked her to talk to Oliver about it. Oliver was always the one to make the rules and set the bedtime and assign the chores. She was William's parent, but she wasn't his mom. She was more of a friend than a mother and the both of them were totally fine with that. Oliver was his father, and Felicity was everything else.

"Sure, I'll talk to him. I can't promise he'll say 'yes' though" Felicity said with a quick glance over to him.

"Thanks, Felicity" William said, fidgeting with his fingers just like Oliver.

"Of course" she said kindly.

When Cohen had asked him if he wanted to go over he was elated. William found that he was strangely disappointed when he said that his friends would be there. He didn't know why. Maybe it was just because he didn't know them very well. He didn't know some of them even at all. It was probably just nerves. He asked Felicity because there was absolutely no way that Oliver would say yes to his kid asking him to go over to someone's house that he didn't know with other people that he didn't even know the names of. He knew very well that of his kid had asked him that, there would be now way, but his wife- a responsible adult- there was a good chance.

When William arrived at the front of the school, he saw Cohen leave all of his friends and rush over to him.

"Will!" He called as he was half-way there.

"Hey" He He said quietly

"Hey. Do you know if you're going to come this weekend?"

William sighed. "No, I don't know. My dad doesn't seem like he'll want me to but my stepmom is going to try to convince him. He's just weird about kids he doesn't know. Paranoid, I guess. I haven't been with him for long. He just doesn't wanna screw up" he shrugged.

"Oh, well that makes sense..." Cohen glanced over at the rest of his friends.

Cohen hung out with the popular kids. The angsty ones, the slutty ones, the attractive ones. William didn't know how he felt about them. They were the gods, they were some of the people that other kids would want to be. They were kinds of kids who got 80 on the pacer test while other kids had already passed out at 20. They were the guys that would do sit-ups on the curl-up test just to impress. 

Cohen didn't seem to fit in with them so much. He was still semi-popular but not everyone knew who he was. He was definately the kind of kid to do sit-ups on the curl-up test, but he would spark out at 18 on the pacer test. It was crazy that someone like that would want to hang out with him. He was the same kid who moved here last year as a sixth grader and got beat up over being the mayor's boy. It seemed like maybe he didn't really enjoy hanging out with them as much as it looked like. And maybe Will was the only one to notice that.

"You know, my friends don't have to be there if it would make you uncomfortable in any way" Cohen said.

"No, no, no. Don't do that it's okay" William blurted out before he had time to process the grand gesture.

"What do you mean "Don't do that"? Really, it's fine, they can wait until next weekend, there's always time"

"I mean, it's okay. You don't have to ditch your friends for me. To be honest I don't even know why you're considering it" he blushed.

"If we're being honest, I don't know why I'm considering it either. I just feel like I can trust you more than any of them. I never had to try to be friends with you it just kind of happened. You don't know how long it took to get them to like me. I mean, I didn't see you all summer but I saw them. I guess we still texted and I learned a shit ton about you and I think you learned a shit ton about me too but still feel bad" he expressed to him.

"Well, you're right I did learn a 'shit ton' about you. So I know that you feel bad all the time anyways. It's okay. Bring your friends. If my dad says 'no' then he says 'no'. It won't be the end of the world" William said as the blood rush fled his cheeks.

Every conversation always turned into a deep and sympathetic expression with him. It was kind of nice. It was great to have a place to just dump all your feelings on. It was also great that Cohen felt like he could just express his emotions in a whole damn paragraph every once and a while. It felt like trust. Trust was limited for him these days.

"Okay, thanks. Um-.. we'll, I guess I'll just go now, I'll see you soon though. Sorry about this" Cohen itched the back of his neck.

"Good lord, stop apologizing" William teased back.

He laughed. "Sorry!" He called as he turned away.

The rich sound of the school bell filled the schoolyard with noise. Another day was about to begin.

"Hey, who were you talking to back there?" Kayla asked as they were on their way to the lockers.

"Oh, Cohen? Just a friend. Sorry I didn't meet up with you guys I got distracted."William told honestly.

"Oh. Him? Really?..." she looked confused. "Okay, yeah" 

"What's wrong with him?" William asked.

"Nothing- it's just- I didn't think you'd hang out with someone like that" she shrugged.

"What do you mean?" he asked again.

"You know, he hangs out with the popular kids" she sighed "pretty soon you'll be one of them"

"No way. No, I only hang out with him. I would never hang out with his friends" he said honestly.

"Ok, well that good to know. I'll see you at lunch, Will" she waved.

 

Was she really so mad about him not meeting them in the usual spot? It was just for one day. Kayla would normally never care about stuff like that. She was probably just on her period. That was her excuse every time. He may as well not even ask.

Will sighed as he walked to home room. He knew a few people there. Most of his friends he saw in his related arts block.

When he walked in the class he saw Erin sitting with Cohen. He didn't know Erin very well but she knew that she's was Cohen's friend so that was all that mattered.

"Hey, Will" Cohen said as he sat down with them.

"Hey. Did we have homework for math last night?" He slapped his binder down on the desk.

"If so, I didn't do it. Maybe?" Cohen said, wiping his forehead.

"Cohen?" William looked nervously at him.

"What?" He asked.

"What happened with you and Kayla?" 

Cohen shook his head. "What? I barely know her. I couldn't have already done something" he sighed.

"What happened?" Erin asked Will.

"Nothing, she just looked weird when she saw I was hanging out with you that's all" 

"Well, I hope I didn't do anything to her" Cohen said.

"I can just talk to her later, I don't think you did anything" Will said.

"Okay, Good. Tell me what it is too, Okay?" Cohen asked.

"Yeah, sure. I'm sure it's nothing" he said

"Yeah, Okay" Cohen nodded his head.

Just like that the bell rung and it was time for first period.

William knew lots of people there. There was Cohen, Erin, Riley, who he had just met this year. Whitney, Erin's best friend. There was also Dylan who was new this year and then there was Jack, who he hadn't spoken to since last year.

First period was English. William hated English. It definately wasn't his strong suit. Math and Science were more his thing. He sat next to Erin, who was the genius of that class. As seventh graders, they weren't offered to take honors English classes yet, only Honnors Algebra and Science. They were all sure that she would be an Honnors English student next year.

His English teacher, Mrs. Smith, was fine. She was older, maybe late 40's or early 50's. She had a thick country accent. She claimed she was from West Virginia but everything about her just screamed "IM FROM TEXAS" loud and proud. Yet, the class was bearable. Having lots of friends there certainly helped. There were no assigned seats on the first day so they all got to sit together.

Once they were handed the assignment, William stared blankly at the page.

"Erin?" He tapped her shoulder.

"Yeah?" She answered.

"Were we supposed to study all these?" He asked, shocked.

She chuckled "well, we went over them yesterday I guess you could have studied" she said as he stared blankly at the list of prefixes.

"I have no idea what these mean" he said.

She laughed again. "Here, just write what I'm writing, I don't care" she said.

 

He started to copy down her words as Riley and Dylan started asking her questions of their own. 

 

Once that class was over with, he walked with Riley to math. He had Hoonor's Algebra this year with him. 

The two of them took their seats and shoved their things into the desk.

Their teacher, Mr.Farley, was nothing short of a nightmare. He would write kids up for having shirts 3 millimeters too short and if your shirt came up as you took your hoodie off or got up to stretch, that was the end for you. You don't even want to think about chewing gum in that class, eating or drinking of any kind was pretty much a death sentence. He decided it was the most important thing to have conversations about drug and alcohol use every five minutes. It was important, but they only had a few days to learn about each subject as is, he was not helping.

"Good morning, class. I hope we're all ready and excited to learn today. You all need to focus. I'm tired of my Honnors students acting like they have nothing left to learn. You all are in seventh grade Honnors in finds of algebra, you're not attending Harvard. With that being said, I need you to focus and pay attention to the things that I am teaching you. Do not just sit there like a lazy little bump on the log, take notes, write down important vocabulary words. You all will have a assignment to begin working on today. You are not to talk as you work on this. There are no partners, I will have no cliques. You talk and you will get written up. I will not have any of that today" he said plain and flatly, pacing the room with both hands behind his back.

"Damn. Don't you think you could actually teach us with all that breath you just wasted?" Riley whispered to him.

William chuckled.

"What's so funny, Mr. Queen?" Mr. Farley looked into his eyes.

"It's "Clayton" sir" he said with a slight snark "and I just remembered something"

"Remembered something? What did I say about focus, young man? Get it together" he said as he handed him and Riley their packet.

Riley widened his eyes at him and turned to work on the packet.

By the time that monsterousity was over it was third period. Science. Science was the best. His teacher was fun and didn't mind chewing gum, or shirts not meeting pants, even talking was totally fine with her. 

Third period was with Alexa, Erin, and Whitney.

He met up with Erin and Whitney in the hallway and tapped Erin's shoulder.

She turned around and gasped "God! You fuckin' scared me, Will!" 

Whitney started laughing and that caused William to laugh too. 

The three of them made it to science safely and William took his seat next to Alexa. 

"Hey" He said as he said down.

"Hey" she said.

"So, I think I might've pissed Kayla off by hanging out with Cohen earlier today" William tensed I'm his seat.

"What? Cohen? Why?" She asked.

"I have no idea. I asked Cohen but he said he barely even knows her" he said.

"Oh, I guess she doesn't like him" she said.

"Yeah, no shit. I have no clue what it is"

"I'm sure it's fine. It'll blow over at the least" when reassured him.

"Yeah, probably" he said.

Once Ms.Brown had given them a little time to talk, class begun. They resumed working on this cool rocket experiment that they started at the beginning of the year just for fun. They were assigned to build their own rockets out of a pool noodle, duct-tape and really whatever else they could find. At the end of the week they were going to use a pressurized rocket launcher to conduct the overall experiment. 

Once that class was over he had history, which always seemed to go by in a flash. He didn't have friends in that class, but that was fine because nobody really knew anyone's in that class. It was just kind of like the "what ever" period.

After history, seventh graders moved into their Related Arts block. William's related arts block consisted of Seventh grade intermediate orchestra, Theatre7, and Health/P.E.

First, he had to travel across the building to the related arts wing to find the orchestra room. He had orchestra with Whitney, Erin, and Dylan.

Dylan sat all the way over in violin section, and Erin and Whitney sat with him in the cellos.

They were having a Halloween concert this weekend with the high schoolers. They were going to play their version of the Halloween main theme song together with the band. They were also playing Chris Thomas' Phantom Waltz which was super boring because no one knows what that is. There was a cello duet in the Phantom Waltz which was perfect because Erin and Whitney were going to play it.

He quickly grabbed his cello from the closet and set up to play.

Once that was done, it was time for theatre. He had health and theatre every other day, so he wouldn't have to worry about sweaty locker rooms and public embarrassment today.

William rushed to the auditorium having gotten out of orchestra late.

Once he got in, he saw Erin and Dylan waving their hands for him to sit by them.

As seventh graders, they weren't obligated to do the school play, but they could audition if they wanted to. For this year's play, Mr.Caleb, their teacher said they would be doing Alice in Wonderland, which everyone was pretty happy with. 

William didn't really want to audition or have a big role. He just wanted to be a part of it and that would be enough for him. He knew that Erin's and Dylan would probably try out for the main charecters tough. Dylan would probably want something big like The Mad Hatter, and Erin would most likely go for Alice.

"Will, you're going for Mad Hatter, right?" Erin tapped his shoulder.

"What? No, I was just going for the door mouse or something" he said.

"Oh, I just figured all the guys would go for that" she continued "what about King of Hearts or something?"

"No way, I don't want a big role, I can just be there" he said again

"Good, because I want King of Hearts" Dylan chimed in.

"Yeah, I figured. I want Alice. Or Queen of Hearts, something good like that" She said.

"You'll probably get Alice. Mr. Caleb already loves you" Dylan rolled his eyes.

"I can't even disagree with that" she laughed.

"Mr. Caleb loves everyone. The only way he won't like you is if you accident,y knock all his papers out of his hands and shut his foot in the door on the first day" Erin teased.

"Both of those things were accidental. He doesn't hate me at least. He's just not fond of me

The three of them continued to laugh and joke around until finally schoo had ended and they were dismissed.

By the time William had gotten home, Oliver and Felicity were already about to leave.

"Bye, buddy. I love you" Oliver said as he hugged tightly and kissed his forehead.

"Bye, Will" Felicity waved.

"Bye, guys" he said as they were out the door.

When will felt a little buzz in his pocket he took out his phone to see what it was.

The text from Cohen read:

C: hey do you know if you're coming this weekend or not?

William sighed. Oliver and Felicity were out the door so quickly, he didn't have a chance to talk to either one of them.

W: no sorry, I still don't know

W: I'll see tonight tho still waiting for them to get home again

William began to slide his phone away when he received another text. He huffed and pulled it back out.

C: that's okay. You don't have to come

C: do you know why Kayla didn't like you hanging out with me yet?

William thought for a moment. He couldn't see a reason why she would care who he hangs out with. She was his friend and that's all that really mattered. She's not the type of person to get hung up on one little thing.

W: no idea we'll se tmrw

C: ok thnx see you tomorrow, Will

W: see you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry I haven’t updated in centuries, I’ve just been busy/lazy, there’s really no excuse, but I’m back now so here you go. Fist thing, I absolutely LOVED the season premiere of arrow!!! Let me know what you thought of it and if I should do anything based off of what we’ve seen so far. I would love you’re thoughts and opinions on this story and what you would like to see more or less of.  
> Next chapter, I plan to introduce supergirl, so get ready for that.   
> Thank you all so much for reading!!!


	17. All-nighters and E-cigarettes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William is on his way to the night of his life.

It was a Friday afternoon and neither William, Oliver, or Felicty were doing anything but relaxing. Having the crazy chaotic lives that they had meant that any "off days" they had would be savored. They were sitting in the living room, Felicty in her chair, reading an article online about glaciers being affected by climate change. Oliver was sitting on the sofa watching a football game with William laying down on his phone, his head draped across his father's lap.

Oliver rolled his eyes as William laughed at his phone for what seemed to be the thousandth time. He drew his fingers through his son's hair and brushed it out of his face.

"What are you doing?" He aksed.

"Nothing. Just talking to a friend" William muttered, trying to discreetly pull his head away from Oliver's hand.

Oliver hummed. "A friend? Do I get a name?" Oliver started playing with Will's hair again, massaging his head lightly.

William sighed. "Cohen. He wants to know if I can hang out on Saturday" William didn't pull away this time because it actually felt kind of good.

"Cohen? I don't know him, buddy" Oliver rested his hand on the side of his face.

"I know, but you never will if you don't just let me hang out with him now" William reasoned.

"Well, I agree, it has to start somewhere... It's just that-..." Oliver paused, thinking of how to phrase his next statement.

"You've never really 'hung out' with someone before, buddy. Not since you've been here at least" Oliver said, looking down at him.

"I know, Dad, but I want to now. I can't just stay home forever" he complained.

"Let me talk to Felicty, alright? I'm not sure. I just need you to be safe is all" Oliver rubbed his forehead.

"Oliver, this is painful to listen to. Just let him go. He's a kid and he has friends, what bad could it do? I say 'yes'. He should go" Felicity said, looking up from her computer.

"Felicity, I know that, but he's never done this before. I've never done this before" Oliver said.

"Oliver, you need to clam down. He's almost thirteen he knows how to make good decisions" Felicty argued.

"Okay, fine. But if anything happens, I'm blaming you" Oliver said as Felicty rolled her eyes.

"Yes! Thanks, Dad!" William said as he hurriedly scurried to his bedroom.

Plopping himself down on the bed, William picked up his phone and FaceTimed Cohen. 

"Hey" William said cheerfully at his friend's immediate answer.

"Hey, what's up?" Cohen replied.

"So my dad said I can come tomorrow finally" Will said.

"Really?! That's great, Will!" Cohen smiled.

"Yeah" he blushed.

"So you'll just walk over to my house tomorrow?"He was smiling again, knowing that he only lived a sidewalk away.

"Uhh... yeah, sure" Will muttered nervously.

"It's okay if you don't want to, Will" he said, almost too softly.

"What makes you think I didn't want to?" He asked.

"I'm sorry, you just didn't sound so sure. I wouldn't force you to do anything" he said more hushed.

"Of course you wouldn't, but really, it's fine. I'll see you tomorrow okay?" He finished.

"Okay, Bye, Will" He said.

"Bye" he put the phone down on the night stand and laid on his back.

Conversations with him were always so open. Almost too open, like it's not just a conversation anymore but a sharing of hearts and minds, without even trying.

Christmas time had come and gone and they were already over the new year.(Courtesy of me not updating in months) (but we don't have to talk about that right now)). This would be his first full, year without Samantha. The good thing was that he was finally surrounded by tons of family and friends that all loved him so much. He knew that it never would make up for her, or replace her, but finally having a family was something that he had wanted for so long and cherished greatly. 

When William woke up the next day it was already 12:00pm because literally no one wakes up in the morning when they don't have to. He would pack a bag and be ready in about thirty minutes to go to Cohen's house. He wasn't sure if Cohen's other friends would be there and he slightly hoped they wouldn't but nevertheless he would be there. 

After fixing his hair about 98 times, feeling risky and wanting to flip it to the other side, but not committed enough to change sides so quickly, he was ready to go.

Oliver and Felicity had already been up or hours and all through the night at the bunker, so they would see him off.

Once he was actually leaving, Oliver was suddenly hesitant. "You have your phone right?"

"Yes" he sighed.

"And money or something?" He aksed again.

"Yes, Dad" 

"House key?"

"Yup"

"Pocket knife?" 

"You won't even let me have a pocket knife" he rolled his eyes.

"Take mine" he reached into his pocket and dropped it into his backpack.

"It's not that serious, Oliver" Felicty rolled her eyes too.

"Everything is that serious" Oliver turned to look at her.

"Okay, Bye Will. We love you, be safe!" Felicty said as started for the door.

"Bye guys" he said shutting the door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys I'm back again. So I've decided that since it takes me like 2 years to update this I'm going to start uploading tiny parts so that they'll be uploaded more frequently. That being said I'll have the second part to this up by like maybe tomorrow idk. Also I was thinking about ending this pretty soon because I really don't know where this is going at all anymore. This is my first fanfic and I came into this not having any sort of plan at all and that has certainly back fired on me. Also since I was feeling like ending this pretty soon I haven't really been motivated to write so I haven't in like years and as a result no one really reads this shit anymore so yeah. 
> 
> Okay sorry if that was a little depressing anyways, I'll see you soon and this time it'll actually be soon


	18. All-nighters and E-cigarettes pt.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A big and scary start to William’s night out with his new “friends”.

He had never walked this far alone before. He was still in broad day light so everything was fine, but still, it felt a little weird to be alone. He hadn't done something like this since he was with Samantha. He wasn't sure if Samantha would ever let him walk very alone, although it was a very short trip.

When he finally arrived at what he was fairly sure was Cohen's house he looked around and walked up the steps to the porch. He had always been weird about knocking so he got out his phone and texted Cohen so he knew he was there.

He heard a sound on the other end of the door and it was soon opened.

"You could've just knocked" he laughed.

"I guess so" he blushed.

"Well, come in. My parents just left so we're alone" he said casually.

Wow. He had never been home alone before let alone in someone else's house. Oliver and Felicty didn't need to know or he'd never be able to leave the house again.

"Oh, cool" he said masking the worry as he stepped inside.

Judging by what he wore and how he was, William was expecting a rich kid house with a big kitchen and family photos here and there with a few succulents placed around. But instead it was just a normal place, nothing special, not too clean, but now disgusting either. He had a few old looking bookshelves by the sofa in the living room, none of which had books, but things like wine and various trinkets. He noticed that Cohen had his shoes on. "In his own house?" He thought. "Weird"

"No one else is here yet, so we'll just be alone for a while" he said plopping on the couch, followed by Will.

"So they are coming" he said to himself. He didn't know how he felt about that.

"Oh, who's coming?" He asked.

"Erin, Riley, Whitney, and Dylan out of people you would know" he answered.

"Oh, okay" he replied. "This can't be too bad" he thought.

"What's wrong? You seen nervous" Cohen sat up and faced him.

"Don't worry, it's nothing" he brushed him off.

"They won't be too bad. Don't worry they'll like you, I know they will" he assured him.

He rolled his eyes, almost smiling. "And if they don't?" He asked, knowing he wouldn't be able to answer easily.

"If they don't... well then too bad for them"

And as if I'm queue, there was a knock on the door and Cohen went to get it.

William didn't want to just be sitting there when whoever it was came in, so he just pretended to be doing something on his phone. He jumped wen he heard a very loud "HEY YOU FUCKIN DOUCHE" followed by a shorter and quieter "Shut up, dude"

An unfamiliar boy came darting through the house lugging a bug duffle bag around his shoulders that looked like it was carrying something big and heavy.

"What's with the bag, you little shit. Better be good this time" Cohen said starting to unzip the bag.

"No,no,no,no,no. That's for later" he scooted the bag away and Cohen put his hands up in surrender.

Wow. His friend's demeanor had completely changed with the presence of this boy. It was like he was a completely different person, it was weird.

"Alright, this is William, but call him "Will" because no one calls him "William" So Yeah. And Will, that disgusting piece of shit is Ryland"he waved his arm between them.

Ryland wasn't short but definately not taller than Will, yet taller than Cohen. He wore a baggy black Champion sweatshirt and sweat pants with a blue baseball cap slung over his head. He had blonde hair with stripes of it shaved off on the sides, pretty pale skin and the darkest eyes he had ever seen.

"Hey, man" Ryland greeted.

"Hey" Will said.

"Man, isn't this the mayor's boy?!" He practically shouted.

"That's me" William sighed.

"Whoa! That shit's amazing!!!" He truly looked amazed. "I bet you've got one of those fancy houses with the swimming pools and balconies with that sunset view" He was truly impressed.

"I have an apartment. No swimming pools, pretty nice view though" he said.

"What are you doing there with all that money you've got?" He said sounding more of a douche bag than he ever had in the past.

"Will's not a rich boy. He doesn't have fancy cars or a terrace with a nice garden or any of that shit. He's like us" Cohen said for him.

Will mouthed a "thank you". "Guess he is" Ryland said finally.

And to end the silence there came another knock on the door with hollaring coming from the other end.

"Probably the rest of them. Let me go get it" Cohen got up.

When Cohen returned he brought Erin, Whitney, Dylan, Riley, and two other boys he didn't know. One had bright blonde hair down to his ears and the other had light brown skin with thick dark hair that stood straight up.

"HEY BITCHES" Whitney screamed as everyone started laughing.

"Didn't know Clayton was coming" Erin said, she didn't seem upset about that which was a good thing.

"Hey" he waved.

"Hey, I'm Ezra, this is Sebastian" the shorter boy with long blonde hair spoke.

"Hey, man" the other boy spoke in a low voice.

Will nodded as Ryland began to speak.

"I got a little surprise for y'all" Ryland mentioned towed the bag from earlier.

"What the hell is that this time?" Riley rolled his eyes dramatically.

"Let's let Will Here do the honors. Go ahead, unzip the bag" he said playfully.

William stood next to the bag near where Cohen was standing.

Cohen nodded at him with a smile and William excitedly slid the zipper open. Before he could get a good look, Ryland quickly scooped a large box out of the bag and held it over his head.

"WE GOT BOOZE" he screamed and everyone started cheering.

Will was silent. A box of beer? Weird. They weren't really going to drink it were they? He wasn't sure.

Before he had time to process what was going on he was standing by while Ezra ripped open the box and handed everyone a can. The can was cool against his skin and to be holding a can of beer... it was just so weird.

He had a few sips of his parents alcohol before, and Oliver let him have a little champagne on New Years, but he had never committed to a full can.

"Hey guys, I'm gonna show Will to the bathroom hold on a second" Cohen said loudly over everyone else.

"Make it quick, dude. These babies won't stay cold forever" Sebastian said as everyone agreed.

"I didn't need to go to the bathroom" he said as he was being dragged up the stairs

"Trust me you do" Cohen said nodding.

Once they'd gotten to bathroom with grey walls and clothes all over the floor and an open shower curtain, revealing a dangerously hairy bar of soap, Cohen snatched the beer out of William's grasp and cracked it open.

"Wha are you doing?" He asked frantically.

"You a favor" he rolled his eyes and he cracked open the other can walked over to the toilet with a seat that was already open. He sighed and poured both of the cans of beer down the toilet at the same time.

"Whoa, what are you doing? That's a big waste" William said still confused.

The cans were both empty now and Cohen sighed again and turned to face him.

"Yeah a big waste of your life. We're not drinking that shit, Will. We're freshly thirteen at the most. Those guys drink this shit almost every weekend. That's not me, and I have a very strong feeling it's not you either" he looked him in the eye.

William nodded. "Good. So what we're going to do is fill these up with water, drink it down there with them and then act drunk. Don't worry, it works, I do this all the time" he assured him.

"Good. I wasn't about to drink a whole can of beer" William shook his head as Cohen finished filling up the cans.

"Alright, let's go" Cohen said shoving a can in his hand and heading out of the room.

When they got back down everyone else was already drinking their beer. William couldn't believe that they were actually drinking. Especially the ones that he was friends with. It was crazy to him that people his age would be drinking, especially kids he chose to hang out with.

"That took a hot minute, what else were you doing up there?" Erin said, smirking at Whitney as everyone else started laughing.

Wilalim looked down and blushed as he set his elbows on the counter where everyone was gathered around.

"Ew guys no. Stop, it wasn't that we were just talking" Cohen blushed too.

He had no idea why but something inside his heart just sort of dropped when Cohen started that sentence with "Ew". Like something was so repulsive about him for him to say "Ew" when he thought about them. It was weird, because he didn't think he was wrong to say it but it still hurt in the oddest most foreign way possible.

"Okay guys. I have something in my bag that you can't tell anyone else I got, if my parents find out I'll be dead" Sebastian glared over to his bag in the corner of the room.

"What now?" William thought. It couldn't be any worse than beers right?.

"What is it?" Dylan asked cautiously.

"I'll tell you if tonight at 12:00am we spend an hour in the woods. I'll even let you use it" Sebastian poured the last sip of his beer into the sink and crushed the can.

"Whatever it is you better have that shit out of my house by the time my parents get home" Cohen said.

"Relax. I will" he promised.

William realized that he hadn't been drinking the water out of the Can like he was supposed to. He panicked and took a long chug out of the can without thinking.

"Daaaamn Clayton. Slow down you'll throw up, trust me I should know" Erin started at his half full can and wide eyes.

"Oh yeah, just wasn't thinking I guess" he said.

Cohen coughed.

"So I was thinking we would start going out about now. Sebastian bring whatever it is you have even though everyone knows what it is and let's go see what's happens by midnight" Dylan finished his drink and threw it away as everyone nodded and began to gather whatever they needed to go wherever they were going. 

It was surely going to be one hell of a night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guuuys. Okay there's a third part to this coming so I hope you're interested so far. I think I'm going to start uploading my other book onto Wattpad so that should be out soon. As always I would love to get some new prompts and story ideas just to see what you guys want more or less of. Comments and kudos are very appreciated. Thanks for reading!!!


	19. All-nighters and E-cigarettes pt.4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William ends his night with an unexpected surprise.

William put his phone in his pocket along with Oliver's knife and followed everyone out of the door. It was only around 6:00pm, so he had no idea what they would do until midnight but he was sure it would be interesting. 

Wherever they were headed was a very unfamiliar part of town. There was litter on the sidewalks and far more cigarette butts than he'd ever seen. Even though he literally lived in an apartment complex called "Star City Metro" he'd never actually been on a metro or even seen it. But as soon and they walked up to a big concrete staircase headed underground with a bug sign that said "PUBLIC METRO" he knew he would today.

"Why do you seem so weird right now?" Cohen whispered to him.

William stayed silent and shrugged his shoulders.

"Wait... have you never been on a metro before?" Cohen asked, surprised.

"No" William blushed and looked down as he wearily followed down onto the boarding area.

"Really?!" He whisper-screamed as they started trailing behind the others.

"No, I have no idea where we are" he chuckled.

"You've never ridden it all the way to Central City just for fun? Have you ever even seen the east side of the city before?" He was genuinely shocked.

"No way, I'd never be allowed to do that" he shook his head.

"Well tonight, you will. You really don't get out do you? I'm going to show you everything" he hurried ahead to catch up with the others and Will followed.

"We're going to the east side tonight, guys. This one's never been into the actual city before" Cohen smiled and gave a weird look to everyone as they gasped about how he'd never seen the city before.

William tensed and appeared very nervous. 

"Don't worry, we'll be far away from the Glades. Opposite side of town" he shrugged.

Oliver always told Will not to go into the Glades alone, but he had also told him not to be afraid of it. He just needed to trust that he could handle himself first, and well, he didn't really think he could. Still, he would love to see the Glades at night all alone. Someday he would see it like that, he would see it pure and raw and realize that it's beautiful and not at all as it has been described to him. 

"The Glades can't be all that bad" William absently boarded the metro and sat in a seat next to Cohen. The seats were two people in a row just like a school bus, it actually wasn't all that different.

"You're right, they're not" Cohen shook his head.

"How would you know?" He scoffed.

"I was born there. We used to be able to go out every night before things got bad. The Glades were never "the bad part of town" you know? But as soon as it turned into that we moved here" he relaxed into the seat.

"Oh, I didn't know that" William looked away from him.

"How could you? Anyway, what do you want to do tonight? You're the only who's not been before" Cohen asked.

"Well, I don't know. I don't know what there is to do, like you said, "I've never been"" he smiled.

"Well, I'll guide you through it. There will be things that they want to do that I'm sure you won't" he told him.

"Like what?" His heart beat a little faster.

"Things like the beer" he whispered so his friends close by couldn't hear.

"Oh" William's eyes were wide.

Once they stepped off the metro and got outside it was pretty underwhelming. It pretty much looked like very other part of the city he'd seen and he didn't know why they made it seem so much better.

"Okay guys, how about we go up to that ice cream place on 4th street and then some back here for a movie or something?" Riley suggested.

"What? That's like 8 blocks away and I do not have the money to rent a bike this time" Erin complained.

"Well, you said Will's never been here before" Riley pointed at Cohen "so don't you think we should go everywhere?"

"Okay fine, we'll go but you're buying me ice cream, I only have money for water if someone's dying" she rolled her eyes,

"Pussy" Whitney laughed and received a punch to the arm.

They started walking and it slowly got darker and he saw that it was almost 8:00pm. The street lights were coming on and the farther they got, the more it looked like a real city. There were light up billboards and food stands everywhere, every street corner they walked passed held a different song being played. He didn't understand how different things could be when he was only on the opposite side of town. It was like he was in a while new world where everything was dazzling and lit up.

"So, Will. Where are you from?" Ezra trailed behind with them and said.

"Central City... I guess" William told him.

"Ever meet the flash?" His eyes lit up.

"That's a very long story" he chuckled.

"Do you know what Sebastian has in his bag right now?" He smiled and Cohen walked away to talk to Dylan.

"Yeah" he awkwardly lied.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that you don't really know?" He said.

Will sighed. "God," he breathed "Do I want to know?" 

"Relax. Just a JUUL. He couldn't find pods with high nicotine, it's not like he could legally buy them but there's a little kick" he said casually.

William's heart dropped and he wanted to stop walking and run away but something just told him not to.

"Oh" he said like an idiot.

"What? Have you never smoked before?" He aksed.

"No" he said staring straight ahead.

"You can try tonight if you want. You should, tastes like mango" Ezra hurrried ahead to catch up with then and Will followed and continued walking by Cohen.

"Did you know Sebastian has a JUUL?" He whispered to him.

"Yeah, I was going to tell you but the time was never right. You don't have to. We'll find a way out, just like the beer. Don't worry, only Ezra and Sebastian really smoke" he whispered back.

"Oh, Okay.It's getting pretty dark, are we getting close?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's right up here" everyone raced to the front of the stand and he followed.

"The usual, Riley?" A tall brunette woman working at the ice cream stand aksed.

"Please" He said and handed her a bill.

"She knows your "usual"?" Will laughed.

"Yes, Of course Carmelina knows my usual" he said with a mouth full of chocolate.

They all sat down at a cute little picnic bench and ate their ice cream. It was almost fully dark now and it was getting colder now. He seriously regretted leaving his jacket at the house, and the ice cream wasn't helping although it was really good.

"It's pretty cold" Erin shivered up next to Dylan and he draped his coat over her shoulders as she dropped her head on his shoulder.

"Gross, is that really a thing?" Sebastian rolled his eyes at them licking his ice cream again.

"Shut up" Dylan rolled his eyes.

"PDA isn't allowed. Let's get somewhere before it gets too cold though" Whitney threw away an ice cream cup in a near by trash can and they all hurried to do the same and follow her.

"Do you always go out this late?" William whispered to Cohen as they took to the sidewalk.

"Only sometimes. We'll be on the ride back by 10:30, okay?" He promised.

"Well it doesn't really bother me I'm just saying like it's getting really dark and if something bad were to happen like, say a mugging or something like that- not to say that there's going to be a mugging that's just a possibility..." William sighed and chuckled, Felicty must really be rubbing off on him. "Sorry, I just... I don't know, I just talk sometimes" he looked at his feet.

"That's okay, I think everyone does that sometimes" he hid a smile in the hood of his jacket.

"Are you happy I brought you here? I mean, do you like it?" He aksed.

"I'm very happy. It's nice here, eveything seems a lot bigger, a lot more open" he looked up at a sky without a single star in it. It's funny how it was called "Star City" and yet there were never any stars in the night sky. Especially not in this part of town with all the city lights.

"Yeah. That's why I like it. Come on, let's catch up, we're going to a movie up there" he ran ahead as he pointed to a bright-lighted sign that read "EASTSIDE MOVIE TAVERN". 

They got in and William didn't really pay attention to whatever movie they were seeing. He didn't even think it was a screen movie, it was probably just some student film, the place didn't seem equipped for much. Kids under 13 got in free so they all tried to look younger so they wouldn't have to pay, luckily the man at the front didn't ask questions and let them all in.

There was only one theatre, and when they got into it, they were the only ones there. That was nice because apparently, Cohen was getting bored of the others and aksed if he and Will could just sit in the back away from them. Something inside of Will sparkled and fizzed around when he asked that. It was that same feeling he got when Jack touched him in the hallway last year, only this time it was good. He wondered what ever happened to that kid, they used to be such good friends. He used to be good friends with Alexa and Kayla, too. It just felt like every minute he spent with Cohen, he drifted further from them, and he knew it was awful to even think of, but it was worth it in that moment. 

"So what's this even about?" Will aksed as they say down in two chairs that were awful quality and ripping at the seems.

"I have no idea" he laughed. Will laughed too and for a minute, that was enough. It was more than enough, that moment was prefect, like nothing he'd ever felt before. 

Cohen started actually paying attention to the film, but Will just couldn't. His eyes were locked on Cohen. He never noticed before, but he had a ridiculously hot jaw line, and anyone with eyes would agree. His eyes shifted down his body a bit (not like that you nasty), he had huge feet. I mean like, huge. They were almost as big as Oliver's and that was big as hell. He chuckled softly to himself.

"What?" Cohen turned his attention back to him. Will snapped out of it and looked back at him. 

"Nothing" he grinned and Cohen gave a big, blushy smile back.

After a while they just looked at eachother, neither one of them caring at all about the movie or what the others were doing in the front of the theatre. Will kept his eyes in the same spot of Cohen's face for a while, but he noticed that Cohen's focus kept shifting and he didn't know why.

"It's pretty loud in here" Cohen looked around the room, splitting focus with him quick. Will's eyes dropped.

"It's a movie theatre, they play it loud" he said, knowing that he was well aware of that.

"Sorry," Cohen had his head between his hands. "I-I think something was happening a few seconds ago but everything just got so loud and I couldn't hear you" he sat up.

"That's okay... I wasn't talking-" he was starting to get both worried and confused now.

"No, I mean I just couldn't focus any longer, I'm sorry. I'm so fucking dumb" he slouched back down and held his head.

"What? That's okay... I mean... are you okay? What's going on?" He grabbed his shoulder, a lot more worried now.

He sat back up and took a deep breath. He didn't say anything and just looked right into Will's eyes like there was nothing else in the room, or the world. 

In any other circumstance this would've been totally awkward, but for some reason, nothing seemed weird about this. They were both noticing things about eachother they'd never noticed before, like how Cohen always had to be moving in some way. Right now, he was playing with the belt loop on his jeans and quietly tapping his feet on the floor. Or like how Will never slouches and always maintains good posture. 

"I've never concentrated on anything this long before..." Cohen started playing with the hem of his shirt, but still making eye contact. "ADHD is a curse" he almost whispered as he stopped making eye contact, suddenly becoming aware of his hands fidgeting around and stopping immediately.

"Oh" Will whispered. "I didn't know" he said.

"How could you have known? Please don't feel bad" he smiled again.

"Are you okay... I mean right now? Are you?" He didn't know what to say.

"I'm fine. 'gets really bad at night. That's why I go out instead of tossing and turning in bed with a million thoughts floating around" he laughed.

"That sucks, I'm sorry" Will said.

"Hey, I said don't feel bad!" He playfully hit Will's shoulder, and that made him smile.

"Not that I'm feeling bad, but can't you get drugs or something for that?" He asked.

"I could, I used to, but my parents expected me to "grow out of it" by now. They still refuse to fill the prescription even though my grades are bad because I can't pay attention" he sighed.

"That really... sucks..." was all he could think of. "You know... I could maybe help you study every once and a while?" 

"Really? I would love that! You're really sweet, Will" he smiled wide.

"Sure" he said smiling too as he shifted his attention to the screen in front of them.

They had left the movie and met up with the others as it was inching closer and closer to midnight. Right now it was about 10:00pm. He wanted to ask if they could head back now, but he didn't want to be like that.

"We should head back now if we want to make it by midnight" Riley said, shivering in the cold, and damn, was it cold.

"Yeah, can we go?" Will said, teeth practically chattering in the chill of the wind.

"Yeah, let's go get tickets, we'll be back by 11:00 at the latest" Cohen said as everyone agreed.

"Here, take this, I don't get cold" Cohen slipped off his hoodie and handed it to Will.

"Thanks" He said, sliding the hoodie over his head. It smelled like vanilla and extremely overpowering body spray which kind of gave him a headache but that was fine.

They got tickets and hopped back onto the metro. He thought he wanted to go back to the house, but then he remembered that that meant Sebastian would try to make them all smoke, and he wasn't looking forward to that.

He looked out the window of the metro, which was kind of giving him motion sickness so he looked away. He noticed Cohen, beside him, he was staring right out of the window, unphased.

"That doesn't make you sick?" His eyes didn't move.

"Cohen, hi" he waved his hand in his face.

"What?" He shifted his attention.

"That doesn't make you sick?" He asked again.

"What does?" He asked.

"Nothing" he laughed.

"Sorry"

When they got off the metro, they immediately started walking back the way they came. He had no idea where he was going since it was so late and dark, but he just followed the others. It had to be about 10:45 and he was already getting tired, which was a little embarrassing.

Warning: don't smoke guys, it's pointless and it'll kill you... there's no reason in the world to do that stuff, so like-don't 

"You guys ready to go to the woods?" Ezra asked excitedly.

"I thought we were saving that for midnight" Erin aksed him.

"Well, It's almost 11:00 and we should probably be back at the house by 12:00 anyway, so who wants to go?" He aksed again.

"don't have to" Cohen whispered to him.

"Let's go" Will said, bumping his elbow into Cohen's side.

"Wow, Okay" Cohen said as they all started laughing and running to the woods.

They all put their flashlights on and followed the trail marked by red flags, tied around the trees.

"Think we're far enough now, let's stop" Whitney said as they all slowed down to take a seat on the leafy ground.

"It's scary as hell out here" Erin shined her flashlight all around them.

"It's fine, the house is like right up there, we can run back whenever" Ezra laid down on his back and soon everyone else followed.

"There were no stars when we were on the east side, and now there's like a million of them" Dylan sighed.

"Very cool, dude. Now who likes mangoes?" Sebastian flipped over and got something out of his bag.

"Sebastian, we don't want to fucking juul" Whitney rolled her eyes.

"I'll do it" Ryland grabbed it out of his hand and held it in his own.

"Ready? Keep your flashlights on" he put it to his mouth and and sucked on the end. he held it for a few seconds, and in a thick cloud of fruity smelling smoke, he let it out of his lungs.

They started laughing as Ryland started coughing. "That's gross" he grinned, slipping it out of his mouth.

"Le'mme try" Sebastian picked it up and put it to his mouth. He did the same, but this time, he held it in much longer and a much bigger cloud poured out of his lips. 

"Anyone else?" He aksed.

Ezra and the other two passed it around a few more times until they got bored. Eventually they eneded up back in their little circle on the dirty ground and it was almost midnight.

"You guys are going to think it's lame... but I brought a bottle, and I've NEVER gotten to do this before, so we're playing spin the bottle and we're GOING to kiss eachother" Whitney took a soda bottle from her bag and everyone looked awkwardly at eachother.

"Why the hell not" Riley took the bottle and placed it in the middle of the circle.

"I'm going first" Erin nervously spun the bottle as everyone rolled their eyes at her excitement. When the bottle stopped, it was right in between Ezra and Dylan.

"Which one?" Whitney asked her.

"Well, I don't want to kiss a guy with mango nicotine on his breath, so Dylan, you're up" she awkwardly scooted over to him and quickly pecked his lips.

"Ew!" she said, squirming back to her spot and wiping her mouth.

Dylan glared at her and spun the bottle again. Oh fuck. The bottle landed on Cohen. Of all people. "I'm not doing this" he shook his head as Cohen just started gagging.

"You have to. If you do, I'll kiss whoever you want" Riley promised.

"Whoever I want?" Riley nodded.

"Okay, let's do this" Cohen shifted over to the middle of the circle.

"Wait- does it have to be lips?" Dylan asked.

"YES! I kissed you on the lips" Erin argued.

"Fine" He said before he very quickly, kissed his lips, barely touching them.

"Shit!" Cohen wiped his mouth and spit onto the grass, and soon Dylan did the same.

"That was a good one. Cohen, your turn" Cohen sighed nervously and out his hand on the bottle. "If I get Sebastian, I'm leaving" he told everyone before spinning.

Cohen sighed in relief when the bottle landed back on himself. "Okay, someone else's turn" he said.

"No, you have to spin again, idiot" Sebastian said.

"I have a better idea" Whitney smiled maliciously. "If you land on yourself, then you have to kiss one of the two people next to you" 

"Whoa calm down,Satan" Erin laughed "That's a good idea. Cohen, do you want to kiss Riley or Will?"

William's heart raced. It was a whole new feeling that washed over him. "Please, God, don't let him pick me" he thought. "But he better pick me because if he picks Riley, I think I might kill him" 

"Oh god. Okay... ummm... Can I just close my eyes and one of them just kiss me?" His voice was noticeably higher and more anxious.

"Fuck no, pick one" Sebastian demanded. Will's cheeks burned. He had not idea how Riley just sat there yawning the whole time, this was stressful as hell.

"Uuuuhhhh.... Okay, okay, Will, kiss me, let's go" he shook himself and turned to face him.

Oh, fuck. It was happening... "ummm... okay, do I just- can I just like... go for the cheek... or-" he scattered everywhere.

"Cmon, prep boy, lips. Everyone else did" Sebastian cheered along with everyone else.

They just sat there... on their knees, looking at each other. It wasn't a big deal when Cohen kissed Dylan, so this want big either. It's not like this was his first kiss, this one didn't count. He'd have one someday, but this one didn't have to count if he didn't want it to, right? But what if he did want it to?

"Kiss him already, Clayton! Trust me it's not that bad, just go fast" Dylan said.

"Thats the thing... what if it isn't that bad" he thought.

And before he knew it, Cohen was kissing him quick on the lips,only it was longer and harder than he did with Dylan, and then before he knew it, it was over. He felt tears burn in his eyes as everyone fell silent. 

"Kay, It's over. Spin the bottle, preppie" Sebastian spoke finally.

"Shut up" he heard someone whisper-yell.

They were still looking at eachother as a tear silently escaped Cohen's eye, and Will knew exactly why. He stared at him, wide-eyed, terrified to blink because he knew that if he did then he would start crying. They knew exactly what eachother were feeling, but neither of them knew what that feeling was. Everyone else saw it too. That was the worst part.

Cohen gasped and wiped his face as he started to run back towards the house. 

"Cohen, Wait!" He tried to call him back but his voice broke and turned into a choked sob as he he put his head between his knees and started to silently cry. "He can't be another Jack" he thought.

He heard leaves rustle as everyone got up to go to the house. He didn't care about being left in the woods alone at midnight, none of that bothered him then. Cohen probably needed them more than he did.

Will gasped when he felt someone sit very closely next to him and put their head on his shoulder. The smell of sugary vanilla and an aroma that he could only describe as "Christmas smelling" washed over him, and he knew that Erin had stayed here with him.

"Do you like him?" He heard her say.

"I don't know" he whispered.

"Not even after you kissed him?" She said.

"I don't know" he repeated. "It's not like it was real. It's not like he wanted to kiss me" 

"Will, I know what you're getting at here... and I think he likes you" she wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

"He might not even know it yet, and don't tell anyone I said that... but if that's what you wanted to know... the answer is "yes"" she said.

"Really?"He said, feeling small.

"Yeah" She said quietly.

"Oh" he sat up. "Thank you... can I be alone?" He asked.

"You know how to get back?" She asked.

"Yeah" he said.

"Okay" she picked up her stuff and he heard sticks and leaves crunch as she made her way back.

Alone. Alone was a confusing word. He wanted to be alone, he thought he needed it. But what he really wanted was to be 'alone together'. He wanted there to be some version of himself sitting right across from him, a version of himself that knew everything, one that had all the answers. He could ask himself all the questions and for once, there would be at least one really good, solid answer.

He looked at his phone it was at 4% from the light being on for so long. He should probably get going soon, but he didn't want to. It was quiet and peaceful out there and he liked it.

William jumped up and gasped when he heard running footsteps coming from behind him. He shined his light over the noise and was showered with instant relief. It was Cohen. For some reason, he came back.

"Hey" he tried to say before his chest was pounded in a gut wrenching, sobbing hug.

"I'm so- I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so, so sorry" He wailed into his shoulder.

"It's okay, you didn't do anything" he said said letting his tears fall freely.

"Yes I did! I knew I would! I fucked it up again! I knew I would!" Cohen ripped away and shook his sobbing head in between his hands.

"Stop! Breathe!" Will grabbed his shoulders, just like Oliver did when he would freak out like that.

He let out a choked, shaky breath and sat on the ground again. Will sat next to him.

"Sorry" He said once he was calm.

"Don't be" He said as he put his head on his shoulder. "I love you, please don't hate me, but I love you" he wanted to say those words so bad but nothing came out.

 

"Hold my hand" Cohen said, without making eye contact.

Will didn't hesitate when he grabbed his hand and held it tight. "Does that feel right" he asked.

"Yeah" Cohen said plainly.

"I think I love you" Cohen smiled without looking at him. "Fuck! Did I just said that out-" 

Will didn't let him finish before he slapped his hand over his mouth and pulled him into his chest.

"Me too" he whispered.

"We should go. It's late" Cohen said as he sat up.

"To be continued" he said as they both stood up to go back inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys I’m back again. Sorry that took a little long to get up, I didn’t think it would take that long but I definately got carried away with this one. That’s going to be the end of that part of the story and I’m so excited to go on. Earlier I said that I’d be introducing supergirl and then I stopped updating for like a solid 7 months and I forgot about it, so I’d love to go on with that soon. If you guys have any ideas on how I could make that work, I’d love to hear them. I also love to hear any suggestions or anything you want more of. If you guys have any prompts for my other story then I would love to do those as well. As normal, comments, suggestions, and kudos are greatly appreciated here and thank all of you little angels for reading!!!


	20. Study-WHAT?..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William comes home.

It was the next morning after they had played spin the bottle in the woods and Will was beyond ready to go home. He threw all of his stuff in his backpack and tried to sneak out of the door before anyone else woke up. Before he left he thought to text Cohen.

W: thanks I had fun last night

C: so you are awake?

Shit. Cohen was awake in the other room. He quickly swung the door open and started walking back home.

W: yeah sorry I just left my dad wants me back early

That was a lie but... it was something. He put in the password to the front gate of the apartment complex and swiftly forced it open.

C: that's okay I had had fun too

He smiled as he ran up the stairs to their apartment.

W: how about you come over after school tomorrow we can study?

C: I would love that

He pushed the key into the keyhole and opened the door. Either Oliver and Felicty we're still out, or still asleep. They were probably still at the bunker though.

"Dad?!" He yelled, throwing himself on the couch. No answer. Must've been another late night.

He looked back at his phone "6 missed calls from Dad" Shit. Six missed calls, he was lucky there hadn't been a search party for him yet. He picked up the phone again and called.

"Hi, I'm so sorry, my phone was off all night because no one really calls anyone anymore so I didn't expect you to call me. I know I should've called anyway but I just forgot I'm really sorry, Dad" he said quickly at the answer.

"It's fine, buddy. Just keep your phone on okay? And don't think I don't know where you were, Felicty has a tracker in your phone, did you forget about that?" He said over the phone.

Shit. He did forget about that. He was dead. He was really fucking dead now.

"Please don't be mad, Dad. Nothing bad happened, I had just never been there before. Nothing bad happened, it was fine" he said frantically.

Oliver sighed, muffled through the phone. "Well, I'm assuming there was an adult there" Will's eyes widened. "I just would like to know next time, okay kiddo?" 

"Okay" he paused. "Can Cohen one after school tomorrow, we have to study" he said.

"Sure, buddy" Oliver paused and there was a muffled "Shit!" in the background of the phonecall as he could hear a faint siren wail. "Okay buddy, I love you. I have to go now" before he could respond to that Oliver and hung up the phone.

Will sighed and sunk into the couch. That went way better than he'd expected. 

He hadn't slept at all last night, so he figured now would be a good time to take a nap before Oliver and Felicty got home. He laid down on the couch and dozed off into instant sleep.

***************************4 hours later*******************************

"Buddy, buddy, hi. Hey" he gasped as he felt his father shake him awake from across him.

He yawned. "How long did I sleep?" He sat up.

"I don't know, bud. You were asleep when we got home, but we let you be for a while"

"What makes you want to bother me now?" He rubbed his eyes.

"I want to hear about your night. Did you have fun?" He asked, sitting next to him.

He paused for a second. "Yeah" he said, trying to hide a smile.

"That's good, I'm glad." he paused for a second and scanned his eyes on his son. "Are you okay, kiddo?" 

"Yeah Dad, I'm fine. Thanks for letting me go" he told him. Oliver made a suspicious face, like he had noticed something, but he didn't address it. "Sure, buddy. Go wash up for dinner, yeah?" 

William did as he was told, uncomfortably cringing as he thought about the face Oliver made at him. Could he know? No. He couldn't know. There was no way... unless Felicty put a camera in his phone too... that wouldn't be very unrealistic. No, she wouldn't do that. She might've wanted to know every single detail of his life, but she wouldn't go that far. Maybe he was just imagining things.

William came back out for dinner and tried to look like he wasn't just panicking a few seconds ago.

"You okay, Will?" Felicty asked as she set out plates at the table.

He blushed. "Yeah, I'm fine"

Oliver and Felicty did that weird thing where they just looked at eachother and had a whole detailed conversation without using any words. He blushed harder.

"Okay" Oliver said and they all sat down to eat.

Talking went on as normal as they all summarized their days and discussed schedules for the next.

"What's that kid's name? The boy you're studying with tomorrow?" Felicty asked him when the subject had come up.

"Cohen" Will took a sip of his water to avoid eye contact or accidental facial expressions.

"Oh. What do you guys have to study for?" She asked again.

"Um" Shit he didn't plan for that..."whatever he needs help with. Not sure yet" 

"That's nice of you" Oliver said.

He nodded.

"Awww, Oliver remember when we had little study dates? I mean not you obviously because you probably never studied for anything, but I'm sure you've at least heard of them. So fun" he smiled like her mind wasn't even in that room anymore.

"Felicity your being weird" William cringed.

"I would-... I would scold him for that, honey, but..." Oliver cringed too.

"What's so weird about that?" Her mood changed quickly.

"Well..." he was practically shaking from embarrassment.

"Well, I don't think anyone really calls it a "study-date" anymore, Felicty" Oliver finished for his son and Will nodded.

"So what do they just call it a "study"? Nothing's weird about calling it a study date!" She sipped her wine.

William made a small noise like he was about to say something, but instead just shook his head and put his plate away.

"Thanks, Dad" he said as he walked back to his room, hearing Oliver try to explain to her why the "date" part in "study date" sounded weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. I hope you liked that! I just remembered that I have a tumblr account, here’s my blog https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ectopia-ao3. So I was thinking that I could post little snip-it’s of my upcoming chapters on there just for like a little sneak peek thing. So if you guys are interested in that let me know because it’s something that I would really love to do. Next chapter is coming out very very soon, probably right after I get this uploaded. Anyways, thanks so much for reading, comments kudos and prompts are appreciated!


	21. Study-Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William has Cohen over to study for a science quiz.

It was early that morning and Will couldn't seem to sleep. He still had two more hours before he had to wake up, and he'd barely slept all night. After what happened, he was nervous about seeing everyone at school. They had probably already told everyone at school about him and Cohen. Everyone probably knew about their little pity party in the woods too. He could not go to school. Not if he still wanted to have a life after that. Uuuuuggggh. Two more hours... just sleep.

At the sound of his obnoxiously loud alarm he breathed in deeply and got out of bed. He was NOT ready for today. If what happened last night was public knowledge, then his life was pretty much over. People had just started to like him after when he moved here last year, this would destroy all of that. He just had to trust that they hadn't told anyone. I mean, not all of them were necessarily nice kids but he at least assumed that they had the decency to keep that a secret. 

He was all in his head, not paying attention to what he was doing. Getting ready in the morning was pretty much muscle memory at this point. He lead himself into the kitchen and sat on one of the stools. 

"Good morning" Oliver put a plate of food in front of him.

"How do you think Canadians feel when people sing America's national anthem at like the Super Bowl and stuff?" Half of him knew that he was trying to avoid talking but the other half was genuinely zoned out that far. "I mean, they've probably memorized it by now, they just hear it all the time. We've pretty much just been shoving our country in their faces for forever..." he trailed off.

Oliver chuckled and smiled at him. "They're probably okay with it, buddy... I'm going to go get ready, I'll be back before you get on the bus" he started for his bedroom.

He looked at his plate, but he couldn't eat it. He got out his phone to try to get some answers, any sense of control. The only person who truly knew everything besides Cohen was Erin, so he wanted to talk to her.

W: does anyone else know about last night? How much do people know?

E: don't worry. Only the people that were there saw you kiss and they just think that you guys freaked out because you thought it was gross or something

Erin replied immediately. He sighed, very relieved. 

W: oh ok thanks 

He put his phone down and shook his head. It was all fine. Of course it was, he always assumed the worst. That was easy to do when you had been through what he had.

"Why haven't you eaten anything? You have to leave in ten minutes, kiddo" Oliver came back into the living room.

"Oh..." he paused. "I'm just not hungry today... sorry" He started getting his things together for school.

"That's okay, bud. Felicity's getting ready now, she can have it" he said calmly.

It was always so annoying how soft and cautious he would be around him in the morning. He guessed it was out of habit because of all the nightmares he used to have the night before when he had first moved in with him, but it was still annoying. He hated being treated so fragile, even if it was unintentional.

Felicty came out of the bedroom looking ready and gorgeous for the day as she always did.

Will got his shoes on and put on his backpack.

He hugged them both and said "I love you's" And was out of the door. 

He really wanted to tell someone about this whole Cohen thing. It couldn't be Felicty, it definately couldn't be Oliver as bad as it sounds. If only Thea were still living here, he really missed her. Of course it could be Erin, but her best friend was Whitney, they're like sisters. Whitney would tell Riley, Riley would tell Dylan, Dylan would tell Sebastian, and Sebastian would tell Cohen and Ryland, and those three would tell the entire school. He just needed someone that could actually understand and give him real answers to the things he couldn't figure out for himself. Answers to the questions he was too afraid to even ask himself, let alone someone else. Why did emotions have to be so damn difficult? Why couldn't it be a simple question and a simple answer? Everything was just so confusing.

Will stepped on the bus and sat in the seat alone. Cohen's stop was next, so he could sit with him if he wanted to, but he was kind of hoping he didn't. He really just needed some time to think and be alone. He plugged in his earbuds and listened to music to distract him.

He barely even noticed when the bus stopped and Cohen got on and sat down right next to him. Of course he did. He wasn't mad, it just felt awkward.

He was at least thankful that he didn't try to talk to him or tap him on the shoulder. It was only about a seven minute ride to the school, so it would be fine. 

They normally walked off the bus together because walking to your locker alone was embarrassing, but today he really just didn't feel like it. It's not like he was mad or embarrassed, he just wanted to avoid talking about it right now. 

He got off the bus without saying anything and started walking into the school. 

"Will, Wait!" Cohen said from behind him and grabbed the back of his forearm.

Will pulled away but only for a second before he stopped walking.

"Are you okay? I'm sorry, did I do something? We don't have to talk about it" other kids walked passed them with loud hollaring and chatter.

"No" he shook his head. Cohen expected him to say something after that, but he didn't.

"Will you at least talk to me? It doesn't have to be about that. Trust me no one else cared about it, I promise" will kept walking but he caught up.

"I'll walk with you" he said, letting him come walk next to him as he tried to hide a smile.

"But you won't talk to me? I guess I'll just have to annoy you all day until you say something" he said playfully, intentionally nudging his elbow into him so much that it kind of hurt but was still playful.

"Okay, Okay" he chuckled.

"Am I still allowed to come tonight? I have a science quiz tomorrow and I'll probably fail if I don't study" he said.

"Yeah, Of course. I can get my step-mom to help too, she's like a genius" 

"Sounds great" he smiled as they got into the building.

They got into the school and waited by each others lockers, they went to Cohen's first.

He opened his locker after three tries. There were papers and trash everywhere.

"That's a mess" Will said.

"Yeah... I keep saying I'll clean it, but I haven't gotten to it" he sighed and they both acted like it wasn't a problem.

Once they got to home room, Cohen was finishing a few pieces of homework while Will and Erin just stared at the wall. It was so damn early. There were a few kids in the back sleeping, it didn't seem like such a bad idea.

The rest of his classes that day went about normally and very soon it was time to leave school. He was surprised when Kayla showed up at his locker on his way to the bus.

"Hey" She said.

"Hi..." he replied suspiciously. "What's up?" He asked her.

"Why does something have to be up, I thought we were friends?" She said.

"Oh! Yeah... yeah, yeah it's just-... Sorry, we just haven't talked in a while" he looked down.

"Well, Yeah. Ever since you started hanging out with Cohen and his friends and stopped sitting with me at lunch or even saying "hi" to me I'm the hallway... yeah. I guess it's been a while" she sounded pissed.

"Look, I'm sorry. There's just been so much going on. I just got distracted and lost touch, I'm really sorry" he said as they made it outside.

"It's fine I guess. We're going to drift apart and make new friends obviously and that's okay. Just, next time- with your new friends I mean, if there's "a lot going on" talk to them, maybe they want to help you" before he respond to that, she left to get on her bus.

"What was that about?" Cohen asked as he walked up behind him.

He gasped and shook his head. "Nothing. It's fine. Let's just get on the bus" he said as they nodded and walked up to their bus.

After a few minutes of driving, the bus stopped at the front of the two apartment complexes, one of them being Will's.

"Right here" he smiled as he and Cohen got off together.

"So are you parents home?" He asked as they made their way to the front gate.

"I don't know, they probably got home early just for you" he blushed as he slid his card into the monitor at the gate.

"Oh" he laughed nervously.

"It'll be fine, don't worry. They'll at least try to leave us alone... I hope" he chuckled under his breath.

"Okay" he looked at him and smiled as they got into the building and started to walk up the stairs.

Will pushed his key into the door and opened it, letting Cohen in first. To no surprise, Oliver and Felicity were there I'm the kitchen pretending to be talking or doing something important.

"Hey guys" William said, trying to get everything over with quickly.

"Hey buddy. Did you guys have a good day?" Oliver turned around with Felicty.

"Dad, please" he sighed as he tried to rush Cohen to his bedroom as quickly as possible.

"I think we did, Mr.Queen, thank you" Cohen said.

"Cohen" Will scolded under his breath.

"Well, since your friend here won't be so polite as to introduce us, we're Will's parents you can call me Felicity" Felicty left the kitchen to get closer to them.

"Thanks for having me, Mrs.- Sorry, Felicity" he turned bright red.

"That's Alright. Okay you guys can get studying now. We'll be out here if you need anything. Just ask Will if you're hungry or thirsty" 

"Thank you" He said as Will rushed toward his bedroom.

"Sorry about that" William set his bag on the bed and smiled down embarrassedly.

"What? They're so nice" he said.

"Yeah, sure. More creepy than nice" he sat down on his bed and started getting his things out for studying.

"Is that your mom?" He looked at a picture of him and Samantha on his nightstand.

Will sighed, but smiled. "Yeah" 

"Sorry, I'm so stupid" his wiped his forehead.

"Hey, It's fine. Don't worry about it. Just-... come over here, we should get started now" he gestured for him to sit on the bed which gave him the weirdest butterflies in his stomach.

"So you have a science quiz tomorrow?" He asked.

"Yeah, Energy resources. I have no idea what I'm doing. There's so many distractions in that room. I mean there's literally 34 bobble heads I counted. It doesn't help that I sit right next to a skeleton wearing a rainbow fedora either" he started playing with his shirt.

"Okay, well, I can help with that. What don't you get?" He said as he took out a few pieces of paper.

After a while of Will repeating information and reading over notes, Cohen was starting to finally get it. It wasn't long before Felicty came in to check on them.

"Hey, guys. Everything okay? What are you working on?" She asked.

"Energy resources for science" Cohen answered as Will just blushed.

"Those are fun. How's it going?"

"Pretty okay, I think I'm starting to get it" he nodded.

"Okay well if you need any help, we're still right out here" she noticed Will dying and decided to leave them alone.

"Actually, maybe you could help? Will says you're a genius about this kind of stuff" Cohen said for the sole purpose of embarrassing him.

"Really?! I mean... sure" 

Will silently kicked Cohen in the shin as Felicty went on and on about things they didn't even know related to the subject. After a while even William had learned a lot more about the subject. And not only did Cohen fully understand now, but he found it interesting and fun. Maybe this wasn't as bad as William had thought.

"Wow, thank you, Felicity. This is actually really cool" he smiled amd glanced at Will.

"Yeah, sure. I tend to make things seem that way, right Will?" These two were really out to embarrass him to no end today, just when he thought it was over.

"Felicity, could you please get Dad to make us something to eat. I'm getting a little hungry" it was a lie but he just needed Felicty to go away. 

"Sure" she said with a peppy smile as she left the room.

"Do you think she likes me?" Cohen said, genuinely wanting to know.

"After that? Yeah, I think she loves you" 

"Really? Oh" he stared at his feet that were crossed in front of him on the bed.

William just sat there, doing the same. It wasn't like other times when they sat in silence, this time, it was very peaceful and comfortable.

"Hey, Will? I have something to tell you" Cohen looked up.

"That you're secretly a crime-fighting superhero?" he looked up and giggled at him and his sudden seriousness.

There was a thick, unforgettable, heavy pause. It was a foreign and painful quietness he'd never felt before. Will's heart skipped ten beats at once.

"Actually, I was going to tell you that I'm in love with you..." his eyes visibly pooled and he heard him stop breathing for a second.

"Oh" a tear that he didn't even expect or feel ran down William's cheek.

"I wasn't going to tell you because I thought you wouldn't hang out with me anymore. But now I know that it would be worth it. Because you not knowing that I love you isn't worth how bad it hurts to love you. I mean, everything I do is impacted by you. The second I wake up I'm thinking about you. I don't know if you noticed but I wore a new hoodie yesterday... the first thing I thought of when I put it on was what you would think about it. Which is really stupid because it was just a black hoodie, there's nothing not to like, and yet I was so nervous that you wouldn't like it. Do you know what that's like? I mean, have you ever been nervous like that? Look in the mirror, look at that perfect boy and tell me you wouldn't fall in love with him after months of getting to know everything about him and him laughing so hard at your jokes, the ones you didn't even think were that funny and tell me you wouldn't fall in love. I did. I mean, look at you. I didn't stand a chance" his eyes couldn't seem to meet Will's. It was so heavy.

Will took a minute to process. He knew exactly what he meant. It was like talking to a mirror, everything he felt, Cohen had said. He wanted to cry, he wanted smile, but he wanted to scream. Instead, he just looked at him until their eyes met.

"I know what you mean" he practically whispered. He took Cohen's hand in his and just looked at it for a minute. Yeah. It felt right.

"That feels more right than anything I've ever felt before" he said with a nervous, tense, yet happy laugh.

"Yeah" he breathed as he looked up at him again.

"You really think you like me?" He asked.

"I'm sure, Will" He said, still looking at their interlocked fingers.

"Why?.. I mean, how? Look, you're perfect and you have blue eyes and blonde hair and your jaw line is... perfect... but why me? I'm nothing like that" his chest was heavy.

"Are you kidding me, Will? I don't want you to be anything like me, you're better than me... look, I don't always like myself that much, but I don't think there's a single thing you could do that would make me not like you. So just be you, okay? And don't ever think that you're not the cutest most good looking guy, Will. Me and I'm sure dozens of other people think so. I mean, come on. Look at those eyes for five seconds, you're gonna fall in love" he chuckled and it became such a normal conversation. God, that laugh, he'd die 100 times over just to hear it one more time.

"Ugh" he smiled and started laughing "Cohen... that's gay" he joked in a fake, high pitched, obnoxious voice, barely getting the last bit out before he started cracking up with laughter and Cohen followed.

"This is why I love you" Cohen whispered as he was still getting over his laughter.

"... I think I love you too" no words had ever felt more right on his tounge than those did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow look at me, two updates in one day, I’m pretty proud of myself. Thanks for reading guys, I hope you enjoyed.


	22. A Person to Talk to

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will decided to talk to his aunt about everything that’s been going on.

It was after their study night that things started to get very interesting. They said they loved eachother. It was undoubtedly true, and they were glad to have said it, for each other, and for themselves. They hadn't specifically talked about it since, but they weren't uncomfortable about it. That was good. It felt better than anything they'd ever felt.

At school was what surprised Will the most. Every class they had together, they managed to begin sitting together if they weren't already. They got off the bus together, waited by each other's lockers, and they sat on the bus next to each other. Every chance they had to see eachother, they did. They even started going to the bathroom every single day at exactly 11:00 am and 1:00pm just to talk. 

Will had never spent this much time with anyone in his entire life. In the last week Cohen had been over to Will's house five times. Two were for actual school work, but the other three were just because they wanted to see each other. It was crazy to Will how someone would just want to see him like that. He wasn't just being nice or using him to get a good grade, he really just wanted to see him. That meant the world to the both of them. 

William couldn't bring himself to tell Oliver and Felicty yet. Erin already knew some of it, and he knew he could always talk to her about it, but he wasn't ready for that yet. If Oliver and Felicity knew, then it was real. It was really happening then, as if he was ready for the whole world to know, and he wasn't there.

He wanted to talk to Thea. He only knew her for a few months, but they really seemed to get along with eachother. They still talked every now and then to catch up on whatever her and Roy were doing, or whatever was going on back home. They hadn't talked since everything happened with Cohen though. It would be really nice to talk to her about it. She was far away from everything, nothing to do with it. She would never tell anyone, and she was very soft and always gave the best advice. She always managed to say exactly what he needed to hear. Part of him wondered why he hadn't talked to her sooner.

That night when Oliver and Felicty were out, he took a deep breath and picked up his phone. Playing with the blanket he was curled up with in his bed, he held the phone up to his ear and listened to it ring.

"Hey, Will! What's up?" She said happily over the phone. God, it was so great to hear her voice. 

"Hi Auntie Thea. You're not busy right now are you?" He asked.

"Nope. I'm always free to talk, Will" She said. You could hear the smile in her voice. Will closed his eyes and relaxed into his bed, letting all the tension from his shoulders dissolve. He just listened to her voice.

"Okay good... um... so you have a while right?" He chuckled.

"Sure. As long as you need. Is there something you want to talk about?" She asked. His cheeks burned bright red for a second, but the blush melted away when he smiled.

"Uh, Yeah. There is. Umm... I'm not really sure how to start this but... When did you um... when did you start... well you know, liking people?" He asked her. 

"God this is terrible" he thought. "This is the most embarrassing thing I've ever done. I should just hang up right now"

"Oh... well, around your age. Maybe sooner... definately sooner. Actually, I had my first boyfriend when I was four years old. I'm sure your dad makes fun of that a lot" she laughed.

He calmed down again as he heard her voice. "Yeah, actually. He does talk about that sometimes" he smiled.

"Why do you ask Will?" She asked.

"Well... there's this b- there's this person. We're really good friends... well, I guess I should just start from the beginning. So, earlier this year we started hanging out. One weekend we decided to go to his house with some of his friends and just have fun, you know?" "Shit. I said "his". Shit, shit, shit. It's okay. She probably didn't notice".

"Hmmm... I'm listening" mshe said playfully.

"So, he was really nice to me that night. His friends aren't the best, and one of them decided to bring beers. I was really just going to drink the whole thing just to play along, but he pulled me into the bathroom. He pored them down the sink and filled them up with water. He said he does it all the time and they never know, so we just pretended to drink beer out of the cans the whole time. I don't know... I mean that's just really nice, right? "

"That is really sweet, Will. I'm also really glad you didn't drink that beer" she laughed. "So then what happened?"

"They said they wanted to go somewhere, so we got metro tickets. I said I'd never been in one before. I also said that I'd never seen the east side of the city before. So he paid for my ticket and he took me there. It was amazing. It was so different. There were so many more lights and bill boards and stuff. Have you ever been there?"

"Oh Yeah. You should be careful around there. I got myself into a lot trouble going out there. Then again, you're a lot more responsible than I was. It's crazy there at night, just seeing how everything changes so quickly, how city-like it is. The lights you were talking about. That's my favorite part. Did you happen to go to the little movie theatre by the ice cream stand? I think it's called like "Eastside Movie Tavern" or something like that. It's pretty crappy and I don't think it shows actual movies, but I always thought it was a cute place" she said calm and softly.

"Yeah! We did. That was what I was going to say next actually. So when we were there, he did something really weird. I mean it was nice, but I guess it just surprised me. All his friends sat in the front but he sat with me alone all the way in the back. And we just talked for a little while. But then, he just stared at me. And I just stared at him too for a minute..." his brain drifted off into that moment again and for just a second, he was back there, in the theater. He was sitting next to Cohen and looking at his eyes, noticing things he never had before. He was so beautiful. 

"Anyways... he was playing with the end of his shirt and tapping his feet on the floor. He was doing that the whole time I guess but I only just noticed then. He stopped looking at me eventually and he was just looking around everywhere really fast. He said something like "sorry it's just really loud in here". I don't know I guess that just confused me because it's a movie theater you know? They always play it pretty loud, but this theater didn't play it as loud as most do anyway. I think I remember him saying that it got too loud and he couldn't hear me. That was weird and it made me really worried because, we'll I wasn't saying anything so there was nothing to hear. But then he said that he just meant he couldn't focus any longer and that he was dumb. He was freaking out so I grabbed his shoulder like Dad does when I'm worried... And then we were just looking at eachother again... like we did before but this time it felt really... Real? I don't know it felt like something was really happening, and my stomach did the butterfly thing, it felt really good, Aunt Thea. Has someone ever looked at you like that? Like there's nothing else in the world but your eyes?"

"Yes. It's amazing isn't it? The butterfly thing. It's beautiful, Will" She said.

"Yeah...yeah it is... but after that he told me something. He said that he had ADHD so that's why he goes out every night he can, because he can't sleep. That made a lot of sense to me because he's always moving in some way and fidgeting. And he can never focus on something or keep his eyes in one place for too long. I think that's what really bothers him at school, the not being able to focus. I just thought it was really weird that I didn't know that already. I mean, I know most everything about him, even the little just cute stuff that doesn't matter. He knows everything about me. I honestly think it would take me a really long time to think of something he doesn't already know. So I was just surprised that he only told me that just then" he finished 

"I mean, maybe he was just a little embarrassed about it you know? Or maybe he just didn't want to tell you until it came up. It doesn't mean he doesn't trust you enough, Will. It just means he wasn't ready" she said.

"Yeah, you're right" he agreed.

"Is he on drugs or anything for it? If it gets in the way of school work I guess that's pretty bad right?" She asked.

"Well, he said his parents stopped filling the prescription when he was younger. They expected him to "grow out of it". That doesn't just happen does it? I mean, you can't just "grow out" of something like that?" He asked.

"No, Will. I don't think you can. That's awful. You know, if one of his teachers said something about it to his parents I bet they would have to fill it" she reasoned.

"Yeah, we talked about that... I just don't think it's something he wants right now. But something big happened when we left there, Aunt Thea. They wanted to go in the woods back at home, so we did..." he pondered whether or not o to tell her about the JUUL, but he decided that it wasn't pivotal to the point of his story. "One of his friends brought this soda bottle," Will knew that it was definitely a beer bottle, but that wasn't important either. "She said that she knew it was dumb but she wanted to play spin the bottle with all of us. I guess I thought it was pretty cool but it just felt weird, seeing all of them and knowing that within a few seconds I could kissing one of them. Have you ever played that before?" He asked her.

"Sure I did. A lot, mostly when I was your age. I've got to say, I kind of miss it. It's so exciting. It's weird though, to kiss your friends when you don't think of them like that" she answered.

"Yeah, It was really weird. We played for a while but then it landed on him and he had to kiss one of his friends. It made me feel really bad. I knew it was just a game and if he had a choice, he wouldn't do it but... I was wearing his hoodie. He gave me his hoodie and then he kissed someone else. I don't know, that's probably just dramatic but, it didn't feel very good. After he kissed the other boy he spun it again and it landed back on himself. We all thought that meant he would have to spin again, but then this other girl randomly made up the rule that if you landed on yourself you had to pick between the two people sitting next to you... I was sitting next to him. It was strange. I didn't want to have to kiss him, but if he chose to kiss someone else when he could've kissed me I would be crushed. So that's why, when he chose to kiss me, I had no idea how to feel. I kissed him. It was... I don't even know what it was, it was under pressure, and everyone was staring, and it lasted a little longer than it should've. I guess that was my first kiss. I'm not sure if I wanted it to be though. I mean, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if it was... but I'm not entirely sure. But it wasn't my first real kiss, was it?

"No, Will. It wasn't real, it was just part of a stupid game. You're first real kiss doesn't happen unless you absolutely want it to, Okay Will? " she reassured him.

"Okay. That makes me feel better" he said.

"So, this boy you like... what's his name? Or do I get to know?" She asked.

"Cohen. His name is Cohen... I really like him, Auntie Thea. Is that okay?" He asked nervously.

"Of course that's okay, Will. That's more than okay, that's... it's wonderful. It's beautiful and exciting. I'm really happy for you okay? Don't let anyone take that away, alright?" She said, quick to assure him.

"Ok. Thank you, Aunt Thea" He said smiling as he relaxed into her voice again.

"You're very welcome... Does he know?.. that you like him, I mean. Did you tell him?" She asked.

"Well... yes. He knows, but there's a little more detail than that. We were at my house and I was helping him study. We were alone and on my bed and he said he had something to tell me. I think I made a joke or something and he brushed it off and... he said that he was in love with me. He said that I was the first thing he thought of every day, and that I was perfect. And he thinks my eyes are beautiful, and he said that there was nothing on Earth I could do that would make him not love me. I couldn't believe it. I guess I still can't. He's perfect, he's like from a movie or something. He has blonde hair and blue eyes and he's just... beautiful. It's just weird to think that someone like that would really like me. He said he loves me" he thought back to the moment when he heard it for the very first time his stomach filled with butterflies and his cheeks burned deep red. It was perfect.

"Do you love him, Will?" She asked.

"Yeah... I do" He almost whispered.

"I know you do. I can tell, just by everything you're saying, how you're saying it. It's real isn't it, Will?" She sounded so gentle and so happy at the same time.

"Yeah...I never... I never really noticed how nice his smile is, or how cute his laugh is. I don't think I ever noticed how warm he feels against me, or how nice his hand feels when it touches mine. It's weird how perfectly we always fit together, but I never knew it until now. I never payed attention to how fast my heart beats whenever he says my name, or how my skin burns when he touches me. It took me a while to see it, but...I think...I think I'm in love with him. And it's scary, and... and I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm scared, but... I love him. I can't live, I can't breathe, I can't think, I love him so much. Have you ever felt that before? It's so... strange... I feel so free when I'm with him and everything fades away. Like I didn't really know who I was before I knew him and when I'm with him I'm actually... myself? God, do you know what that's like? It's sweet and it's amazing and it's torture at the same time. Like everything he says is a knife driving through my stomach and it feels so... good" 

“I know exactly what you mean, Will. It’s pain but it’s beautiful... you know I love you right?” She asked.

“Of course I know. Thank you, Aunt Thea. I love you too” he smiled.

“Your mom would be really proud of you, you know that, Will? She would be so happy” Thea felt tears burn in her eyes.

“I’ll tell her soon. I know it might be a little weird but... every time we go and visit her, I just sit for hours and I tell her everything. I like to think that she listens... and I like to think that she’s proud of me, even when I’m not” he looked down.

“You know I like to talk to my mom too. I can’t visit her being so far away, but once and a while when I’m alone and I get the chance, I’ll just talk to her... for hours like she’s sitting right next to me and I tell her everything. I like to think she’s proud of me too. I like to think that she’s right there with me, even if I can’t see her” she said quietly.

“Me too... Thanks for listening to me. It’s nice to have someone to talk to whenever” he told her.

“Sure, Will. When ever you need me, I’m right here okay?”

“Okay, Auntie Thea. I love you, Goodnight” he said, smiling.

“Goodnight, kiddo. Love you too”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I hope you enjoyed that. I always loved the idea of Will talking to Thea so I was really happy to write this. I have no idea where this story is going anymore I just hope you guys are enjoying reading it, I’m enjoying writing it a lot. Anyways, comments and kudos are appreciated. Let me know if you have any story ideas, I’ll be happy to try and incorporate them!  
> Thank you guys so, so, so much for reading!!!


	23. I Thought I Had More Time

William woke up one morning, keen to start his day. He had been waking up like this a lot recently. He always thought it was sort of bizarre for people to wake up and just be happy. He never imagined he would feel what that was like, but there he was. 

Still, he was consumed with worry as he always was. Worry and fear that his secret would get out, or that someone won't like it. That's why he hid. That's why they hid. It was for the best or at least that's what Will and Cohen told themselves. They were still young and afraid, it didn't matter if they hid, and if they stayed hidden, it wasn't really happening. They were okay with accepting that, for now at least.

Even so, he emerged from his bed and began to start his day. Every day at school seemed great lately. With Cohen with him all the time, and him coming over after school non-stop. He didn't think it could get any better. He didn't like the fact that they hadn't talked about what happened, or what they had said to each other, but as far as he was concerned, that didn't matter if life continued on for him this way. If everything could stay just like this, perfect, forever, everything would be okay.

Will left his apartment in the morning just like he always did and quickly hurried to get on his bus. He sat in the empty seat he always did and waited for them to approach Cohen's stop so he could board the bus with him. This morning, when Cohen arrived in the bus he was very quiet and seemed uneasy. The boy then plugged in his earbuds and began listening to his music, slowly closing his eyes a little. Will decided to leave him alone for now, at least until they got into school. 

William went to his locker first, but today, he didn't see Cohen following behind him. Now he was worried, he didn't think he had done anything, he couldn't be mad at him. He just hoped he was okay. After William had gotten his stuff out from his locker, he traced the halls in search of Cohen, stopping first at his locker. When he wasn't there, the only place he hadn't checked was the bathroom. He set his stuff down by the door in the hall and walked in. The first thing he heard was laughing and just boys messing around, nothing out of the ordinary. He pushed in further and saw that it was Cohen there. Will remained partially behind the wall so he couldn't be seen as he waited a while and stared. Cohen was hanging out with Ezra and Sebastian. It looked like they were writing things on the wall with their pencils and laughing rather loudly. 

William slipped into the bathroom and into the stall without them seeing him. They quieted down when they heard the stall door lock, but when they came to the conclusion that it was just no one, they started back up again. William stayed standing quietly as he proceeded to listen to their conversations. It might've been a strange thing to do, but he couldn't really leave at this point if they were still there. 

"So what are you doing after school today?" He heard Sebastian ask who the thought was Cohen.

He assumed they were going to study together that day since they had a pretty big English test coming up in a couple of days.

"Umm..." Cohen paused. "I'm not sure, I have an English test soon, but it's totally fine I have it down" he heard Cohen say form his spot in the halls.

"No you don't" Will thought to himself. "Bullshit. I bet you can't even remember what it's on"

"Were you seriously gonna go 'study with Will' again? For the third time this week? You need to stop studying so much. And maybe stop hanging out with Will so much. I swear he's making you so uptight. I miss the old Cohen" Ezra said.

William fought back the urge to gasp out. "Wow" he thought. "Just Wait to hear what Cohen says. It'll be fine"

"What's wrong with Will?" Cohen asked, chucking a little.

Sebastian sighed. "See what we mean? This is a perfect example, you're so guarded now, you don't have to protect him or anything. All we're saying is maybe you should stop studying so much and hang out with us again... That kid... That kid- I don't know. He's different. He's different around you, I don't know what it is. And now you're acting different because of him, so maybe you should be reminded of what it's like to live a little" Sebastian answered.

"Live a little?!" Will thought. "What's living when you're failing four out of seven classes. No. I changed him for the better. The only class he's failing now is English. They're wrong. Cohen knows they're wrong, he'll say the right thing. It'll be fine"

"Okay, okay. I don't know... maybe you're right, I haven't really been myself lately. I'll be free all week, I promise. I'll hang out with you guys, not Will" he promised.

"What? All week? The test is on Friday. He'll never pass it, not without me. How could he do this? Did he just forget about everything he said?" Will said to himself.

"Great. Then you can be reminded of what life is like without your little boyfriend chasing your ass wherever you go. Seriously, you've got to stop hanging out with him, people are getting suspicious" Ezra giggled under his breath.

"Suspicious? Of what? Why would they be suspicious?" Will could see the panic on his face. He didn't need to be able to see him to picture it in his mind. To know that it was there, all he had to do what hear it.

"Why do you think? You sit together in every class, you go to each others lockers, sit together on the bus, walk to class together, eat lunch together, and at the end of the day, you're always getting off at his stop. You've got to tell him to hop off your dick, man" Sebastian explained.

Will thought he was going to throw up. Either throw up, pee himself, or cry. All of them seemed possible at that moment. Cohen was such a follower. He would do anything for his social life. Not because he was a back-stabbing douche bag, but because if he didn't have a wall of people supporting him at all times, he would fall apart. Without the stability of popularity in his life, everything would shatter in an instant for him. Will knew that if hanging out with him would cause him to lose that, he would stop. He always knew this would happen, he just thought he had more time.

They changed the subject and he heard their footsteps echo out of the bathroom and into the hall. The repetitive obnoxious sound of the school bell flooded his senses. How was he supposed to leave? How was he supposed to show himself to anyone ever again. Cohen was in his home-room, and he was in his next three classes. How would he look at him knowing what had just happened?

He could stay there all day, the mechanical him of the machinery and water clogging his ears. Or he could, go to class, embarrassedly looking at the ground, and sitting all alone. It wasn't worth that. Besides, staying there all day wouldn't be so bad. His books were waiting outside the door, there was always plenty to read. Reading books didn't get you betrayed and stabbed in the back by your best friend. That was good enough. That was more than good enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!!! I'm back, and so far I have two more chapters that I plan to publish VERY soon. I really hope you enjoyed that chapter and I hope you also enjoy the ones to come. As I'm sure many of you know, next year, Arrow will be coming to a close:'(. After the last 10 episodes of the eighth season, I intend to wrap up this story. It's still undecided but after I finish this book I want to start a new one that sort of closes this story line and fills any plot holes that I may leave. Let me know anything that you may want to see before this story is over and I'll make sure to write it. Thanks soooo much for reading and I hope you all have a great Memorial Day.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I hope you all enjoyed that first little part. There is definitely more to come, so stay tuned for tomorrow’s update!


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